full circle magazine #65

Full Circle

THE INDEPENDENT MAGAZINE FOR THE UBUNTU LINUX COMMUNITY

ISSUE #65 - September 2012

REVIEW

UBUNTU MADE EASY

KEEPING YOUR HOME PARTITION SAFE

Photo: ell brown (Flickr.com)

full circle magazine #65

Full Circle

THE INDEPENDENT MAGAZINE FOR THE UBUNTU LINUX COMMUNITY

Use Encryption p.13

LibreOffice - Part 18 p.10

Python - Part 37 p.06

Kdenlive - Part 2 p.16

HowTo

Opinions

Q&A p.51

Ubuntu Games p.54

Ubuntu Women p.XX

Command & Conquer p.04

Inkscape - Part 5 p.18

Columns

Linux Labs p.27

Review p.42

Web Dev p.21

My Opinion p.35

My Story p.32

Letters p.48

Audio Flux p.XX

Ask The New Guy p.24

Closing Windows p.29

BACK NEXT MONTH

Graphics

Web Dev

BACK NEXT MONTH

full circle magazine #65

Welcome to another issue of Full Circle!

his month's FCM brings you more Python and LibreOffice, and they are

accompanied with an article on setting up encryption within Ubuntu.

Unfortunately, encrypting your partitions can go awry when hibernation kicks in.

Fear not, this article explains how to rectify any sleeping issues. With the computer

I mean, not you.

No Starch Press has been kind enough to submit a review copy of Ubuntu Made Easy,

which is reviewed this issue. Incidentally, we're open to reviewing anything Linux related,

so, if you know of anyone who might be interested in having something reviewed, please

tell them about us. Not only does it give us something to review (thus, filling pages), but we

are quite happy to return the favor by giving the supplier ad space for free. We reach over

25,000 people each month who love Ubuntu and Linux, so it's quite worth it.

A couple of (small) changes this month. Please read the 'Write for Full Circle' and

'Contribute' pages – as I've updated them with links to the Official Full Circle Style Guide

and where you can get Full Circle. Speaking of getting FCM, you can now read all back issues

of Full Circle via Issuu (link is on the Contribute page). This means you can waste work time

by reading FCM without downloading the PDF. Don't worry, the PDF will always be available

for download, we've no intention of abandoning it.

All the best, and keep in touch!

ronnie@fullcirclemagazine.org

Full Circle Podcast

Released monthly, each episode

covers all the latest Ubuntu news,

opinions, reviews, interviews and

listener feedback. The Side-Pod is

a new addition, it's an extra

(irregular) short-form podcast

which is intended to be a branch

of the main podcast. It's

somewhere to put all the general

technology and non-Ubuntu stuff

that doesn’t fit in the main

podcast.

Hosts:

• Les Pounder

• Tony Hughes

• Jon Chamberlain

• Oliver Clark

http://fullcirclemagazine.org

full circle magazine #65

hese past few weeks I've

gotten hooked on Guild

Wars 2, which was

released on August 28th.

However, as I'm on vacation, I was

placed in the position of having to

rely on Wine.

I tend to prefer running games

natively. However, I've gotten it

working fairly well via PlayOnLinux

(the only exceptions are the

embedded webpages for the Black

Lion Trading Company and looking

with the mouse, both are solved

using patched versions of Wine).

Long story short, if you want to

play the game in Wine, keep on

reading. For anyone who isn't

aware of it, Guild Wars 2 is a

Massively Multiplayer Online

Roleplaying Game from ArenaNet.

It offers 5 different classes, 8

professions (called classes in most

MMOs), and features such as

dynamic events (as opposed to

classes, these are events that

spawn semi-randomly over the

map, giving you a more immersive

game), and a personalized story for

each character you create. For

anyone skeptical about it: I've

started about 8 different

characters since the 3rd Beta

Weekend event, and each one has

had a significantly different story.

The game is buy-to-play (as

opposed to free-to-play or pay-to-

play). What that means is that once

you buy the game, you own it and

can play it (like most non-MMO

games). The game is currently

going for between 45 and 65€ (60-

80 USD).

Versions of Wine I used: 1.5.9-

raw3 originally (the raw input

patch is required to be able to

rotate the camera via mouse).

However, at the time of writing,

PlayOnLinux also offers a

-guildwars2 series of Wine

versions, that include patches for

raw input and the embedded

webpages (see this bug report:

http://bugs.winehq.org/show_bug.

cgi?id=27168#c41). I get slightly

fewer FPS with this version of wine

(1.5.12-guildwars2), but I haven’t

been using it for long. There are

numerous versions of -guildwars2

patches, so some older versions

may offer slightly better

performance. According to the

PlayOnLinux forums, 1.4.1-

guildwars2 offers the best

performance, and 1.5.11 can lead

to issues with alsa. Anyone not

using PlayOnLinux can patch their

version of Wine with the

corresponding patches.

The screenshots were taken at

the highest graphical settings

possible on my laptop, but they

were by no means the maximum

settings available.

The easiest way to set up the

Wine installation is to use

PlayOnLinux, and, after enabling

the testing repository, installing

Guild Wars 2 via the interface. If,

however, you dislike using

PlayOnLinux, you simply need to

download the installer and execute

it. It will begin a download, roughly

10MB, if I remember correctly.

Once the download finishes, you

may be greeted by a black

screen—if this is the case, you'll

need to work blind for a second.

The button you need to press is in

the lower-left quadrant of the

window. It was roughly 1/5th of

the way from the bottom, and

1/5th to 1/6th of the way from the

left of the window for me. It will

pop open a new window asking you

for the install location. I wouldn't

Written by Lucas Westermann

full circle magazine #65

Lucas has learned all he knows from

repeatedly breaking his system, then

having no other option but to

discover how to fix it. You can email

Lucas at: lswest34@gmail.com.

recommend changing the default

path too much, but so long as it

ends up in the correct Wine folder,

it shouldn't be an issue. Once

you've selected the path, hit the

“okay” button. In newer versions of

the installer, the button may be

the direct “install” button, but if it

says “okay” and nothing happens,

the install button should be in

roughly the same spot as the first

button, but on the other side of

the window.

For anyone not interested in

fighting with a black screen, you

can easily start the installation

from a Windows PC, and copy the

resulting Guild Wars 2 folder. It

also works in a Virtual Machine. I

wouldn't recommend letting the

game patch in a VM though, since

the resulting folder can get rather

large. Once you've gotten the

Gw2.exe, Gw2.dat, and Gw2.tmp,

you're basically ready to patch your

game.

In order to patch your game,

you'll need to create some sort of

launcher, so that you can pass an

argument to Gw2.exe. If you're

using PlayOnLinux, you can do this

by choosing Configure, and adding

-dx9single to the arguments field.

This stops the black screen issue

(and also the perpetual connection

attempt). If you're using plain old

Wine, you'll just need to either

create a .desktop file (I haven't

tested arguments in these sorts of

files, but it should work), or else a

bash file that looks something like

this:

#!/bin/bash

wine $PATH/Gw2.exe dx9single

This worked for me during the

beta weekends (since then, I've

switched to PlayOnLinux in order

to have easy access to the raw

input patches). It's also

recommended that you have

d3dx9, gecko, and mono installed.

(Though both gecko and mono

don't appear to have an impact, it's

better to have them and not need

them).

Once your launcher is created,

you're all ready to start patching

(trust me, it can take a while).

Some people report intermittent

crashes of the launcher when using

Wine, but I didn't have this issue. If

you want to risk leaving it

unattended as it downloads, you

can give it a shot, but you may

need to restart the launcher

occasionally.

Hopefully I've appealed to any

MMO fans with this article. If I

have, and you'd like to see these

sorts of articles continuing, please

let me know (along with any names

of games you'd like to see covered

– if I can get it working, I'll cover it).

In case you have any questions,

comments, or suggestions about

this article (or ideas for future

articles), you can reach me at

lswest34@gmail.com. If you do

email me, please include FCM or

C&C in the subject line, so I don't

overlook the email. Also, if anyone

is playing Guild Wars 2 and has any

suggestions to make it run better

(or want to share some tips/ask

questions), you're also welcome to

email me. My home world is

Gandara, but, thanks to the

guesting feature, odds are I should

be able to help out just about

anyone.

COMMAND & CONQUER

full circle magazine #65

Written by Greg D. Walters

his month, we’ll finish up

the transposer program

that we wrote in Kivy.

Hopefully, you saved the

code from last time, because we’ll

be building upon it. If not, grab the

code from FCM#64.

Let’s start by recapping what

we did last month. We created an

application that allows for a

guitarist to quickly transpose from

one key to the other. The ultimate

goal is to be able to run this app

not only on your Linux or Windows

box, but on an android device as

well. I take mine on my tablet

whenever I go to band practice. I

was going to deal with packaging

our project for Android, but some

things have changed in the method

to do that, so we’ll work on that

next month.

The app, as we left it last time,

looked like that shown below left.

When we are done, it should

look like the screen below right.

The first thing you will notice is

that there are blue labels rather

than boring gray ones. The next is

that there are three buttons.

Finally the scrollable labels are

closer to the entire width of the

window. Other than that, it’s

pretty much (visually) the same.

One of the buttons is an “about”

button that will pop up simple

information, but it explains how to

make a simple popup. One of the

buttons is an exit button. The

other button will swap the label

text to make it easy to transpose

from piano to guitar or guitar to

piano.

Let’s get started by creating a

.kv file (above right). This is what

will give us the colored labels. It’s a

very simple file.

#:kivy 1.0

#:import kivy kivy

<BoundedLabel>:

canvas.before:

Color:

rgb: 0, 0, 1

Rectangle:

pos: self.pos

size: self.size

full circle magazine #65

HOWTO - PROGRAMMING IN PYTHON 37

The first two lines are required.

They basically say what version of

Kivy to expect. Next we create a

new type of label called

‘BoundedLabel’. The color is set

with RGB values (between 0 and 1,

which can be considered as 100

percent), and as you can see the

blue value is set at 100 percent.

We will also create a rectangle

which is the actual label. Save this

as “transpose.kv”. You must use

the name of the class that will be

using it.

Now that you have that

completed, add the following lines

just before the transpose class to

the source file from last time:

class BoundedLabel(Label):

pass

To make it work, all we need is a

definition. Before we go any

further, add the following line to

the import section:

from kivy.uix.popup import

Popup

This allows us to create the

popup later on. Now, in the

Transpose class, just inside the def

build routine, place the code

shown above right.

The LoadLabels routine will give

us the colored labels

(BoundedLabel) and the swap

ability. You saw most of this last

time. We pass a value to the “w”

parameter to determine which text

is being displayed. The

l=BoundedLabel line is pretty much

the same line from last time, with

the exception that, this time, we

are using a BoundedLabel widget

instead of a Button widget. The

LoadLabels will mainly be called

from the next routine, Swap. Place

this code (shown right) below

LoadLabels.

def LoadLabels(w):

if w == 0:

tex0 = self.text1

tex1 = self.text2

else:

tex0 = self.text3

tex1 = self.text4

for i in range(0,22):

if i <= 12:

if i < 10:

t1 = " " + str(i) + "| "

else:

t1 = str(i) + "| "

t = tex1

else:

t1 = ''

t = ''

l = BoundedLabel(text=t1+t[(i*6):(i*6)+78], size=(780, 35),

size_hint=(None,None),halign='left',

font_name='data/fonts/DroidSansMono.ttf')

s.add_widget(l)

def Swap(instance):

if self.whichway == 0:

self.whichway = 1

btnWhich.text = "Guitar > Piano"

btn1.text = " " + self.text3

s.clear_widgets()

LoadLabels(1)

else:

self.whichway = 0

btnWhich.text = "Piano > Guitar"

btn1.text = " " + self.text1

s.clear_widgets()

LoadLabels(0)

full circle magazine #65

HOWTO - PROGRAMMING IN PYTHON 37

You can see that this routine is

pretty self explanatory. We use a

variable (self.whichway) to

determine “which way” the labels

are displaying... from Guitar to

Piano or Piano to Guitar.

Be sure to save your work at

this point, since we are going to be

making a lot of changes from here

on.

Replace the lines defining text1

and text two with the lines shown

above.

We set self.whichway to 0 which

will be our default for the swap

procedure. Then we define four

strings instead of the two we had

last time. You might notice that

strings text3 and text4 are simple

reversals of text1 and text2.

Now we will tweak the root line

definition. Change it from...

root =

GridLayout(orientation='verti

cal', spacing=10,

cols=1,rows=3)

root =

GridLayout(orientation='verti

cal', spacing=6, cols=1,

rows=4,

row_default_height=40)

We’ve changed the spacing

from 10 to 6 and set the default

row height to 40 pixels. Change the

text for the label (next line) to

“text='Transposer Ver 0.8.0'”.

Everything else stays the same on

this line.

Now change the button

definition line from...

btn1 = Button(text = " " +

text1,size=(680,40),

size_hint=(None,None),

halign='left',

font_name='data/fonts/DroidSa

nsMono.ttf',

padding=(20,20))

to:

btn1 = Button(text = " "

+ self.text1,size=(780,20),

size_hint=(None, None),

halign='left',

font_name='data/fonts/DroidSa

nsMono.ttf',

padding=(20,2),

background_color=[0.39,0.07,.

92,1])

Notice that I’ve changed the

formatting of the first definition

for clarity. The big changes are the

size change from 680,40 to 780,20

and the background color for the

button. Remember, we can change

the background color for buttons,

not “standard” labels.

Next, we will define three

AnchorLayout widgets for the

three buttons that we will add in

later. I named them al0

(AnchorLayout0), al1 and al2. We

also add the code for the About

Popup, and define our buttons

along with the bind statements.

This is shown on the next page, top

left.

Find the “s = GridLayout” line

and change the spacing from 10 to

4. Next, add the following line

after the s.bind line (right before

the for loop):

LoadLabels(0)

This calls the LoadLabels

routine with our default “which” of

Next, comment out the entire

for loop code. This starts with “for i

in range(0,19):” and ends with

“s.add_widget(btn)”. We don’t

need this since the LoadLabels

routine does this for us.

self.whichway=0

self.text1 = " C | B |A#/Bb| A |G#/Ab| G |F#/Gb| F | E |D#/Eb| D |C#/Db| C |"

self.text2 = " C | B |A#/Bb| A |G#/Ab| G |F#/Gb| F | E |D#/Eb| D |C#/Db| C | B |A#/Bb| A |G#/Ab| G |F#/Gb| F | E |D#/Ab| D |C#/Db| C |"

self.text3 = " C |C#/Db| D |D#/Eb| E | F |F#/Gb| G |G#/Ab| A |A#/Bb| B | C |"

self.text4 = " C |C#/Db| D |D#/Eb| E | F |F#/Gb| G |G#/Ab| A |A#/Bb| B | C |C#/Db| D |D#/Eb| E | F |F#/Gb| G |G#/Ab| A |A#/Bb| B | C |C#/Db|"

full circle magazine #65

Greg is the owner of RainyDay

Solutions, LLC, a consulting company

in Aurora, Colorado, and has been

programming since 1972. He enjoys

cooking, hiking, music, and spending

time with his family. His website is

www.thedesignatedgeek.net.

HOWTO - PROGRAMMING IN PYTHON 37

Now, save your code and try to

run it. You should see a deep

purple button at the top, and our

pretty blue BoundLabels. Plus, you

will notice that the BoundLabels in

the scroll window are closer

together, which makes it much

easier to read.

We are almost through with our

code, but we still have a few things

to do. After the “sv = ScrollView”

line add the following line...

sv.size = (720, 320)

This sets the size of the

ScrollView widget to 720 by 320 –

which makes it wider within the

root window. Now, before the

“return root” line, add the code

shown top right.

Here we add the three buttons

to the AnchorLayout widgets,

create a GridLayout to hold the

AnchorLayouts, and then finally

add the AnchorLayouts to the

GridLayout.

Go back just below the “def

Swap” routine and add the

following...

def ShowAbout(instance):

popup.open()

That’s it. Save and run the code.

If you click on the About button,

you will see the simple popup. Just

click anywhere outside of the

popup to make it go away.

Now our code is written. You

can find the full code at

http://pastebin.com/GftmjENs

Next, we need to create our

android package... but that will

have to wait for next time.

If you want to get set up and try

packaging for Android before next

month, you should go to

http://kivy.org/docs/guide/packagi

ng-android.html for the

documentation on this. Be sure to

follow the documentation

carefully.

See you next month.

al0 = AnchorLayout()

al1 = AnchorLayout()

al2 = AnchorLayout()

popup = Popup(title='About Transposer',

content=Label(text='Written by G.D. Walters'),

size_hint=(None,None),size=(400,400))

btnWhich = Button(text = "Piano > Guitar",

size=(180,40),size_hint=(None,None))

btnWhich.bind(on_release=Swap)

btnAbout = Button(text="About",size=(180,40),

size_hint=(None,None))

btnAbout.bind(on_release=ShowAbout)

btnExit = Button(text="Exit", size=(180,40),

size_hint=(None,None))

btnExit.bind(on_release=exit)

al0.add_widget(btnWhich)

al1.add_widget(btnExit)

al2.add_widget(btnAbout)

bgl = GridLayout(orientation='vertical',

spacing=6, cols=3,rows=1,

row_default_height=40)

bgl.add_widget(al0)

bgl.add_widget(al1)

bgl.add_widget(al2)

full circle magazine #65

Written by Elmer Perry

hen building a

presentation, it is

important to

present the

information in a pleasing and

informative way. Using slide

transitions provides a visual move

from one topic to the next, and

using animations helps to inform

viewers or provide emphasis on

the current point. Overuse of

transitions and animations can

cause your presentation to look

less than professional. However,

the appropriate use of these

features will give your

presentation a polished and

professional appearance.

Slide Transitions

Transitions are the visual

changes made when moving from

one slide to the next. Transitions

provide a visual clue to the

audience that you are moving to a

new topic. In general, you will use

the same transition for all the

slides, but, in some cases, you will

want to use a different transition

to show the viewers a change of

topic.

With the slide you want to

change displayed in the main view,

select Slide Transition from the

Tasks pane. The selection list

provides you with a collection of

different slide transitions. If you

have Automatic preview checked at

the bottom of the Slide Transition

pane, you will see a preview of the

transition when you select it or

change its settings.

You can further modify the

transition in the Modify transition

section of the pane. Speed will

change the rate at which the slide

is displayed. Sound lets you play a

sound with the transition. You can

select a sound from the defaults

provided, or select your own. Once

you select a sound, you can select

Loop until next sound. You will

rarely have a use for this, but it is

there should you need it.

In the Advance slide section,

you set how and when you want

the slide to advance. On click

means the slide will display until

you click the mouse or press the

space-bar. Automatic after allows

you to automatically advance the

slide after a set number of

seconds. When selected, you can

adjust the number of seconds in

the spinner box.

At the bottom of the pane, you

have three buttons. Apply to All

Slides does what it says; it applies

the transition to all the slides in

the presentation. Play causes the

transition to run in the main view.

Slide Show starts the presentation

beginning with the current slide.

Animations

Animations are similar to

transitions, but instead of acting

on the slide, it acts on individual

objects in the slide. Animations

help create emphasis, flow, and

visual interest as you present the

objects on a slide. They keep the

audience aware of the current

subject, and act as a visual clue to

the presenter.

To create animations, first

select the slide which you want to

create animations for. Select the

object(s) you want to animate, and

open the Custom Animations pane

full circle magazine #65

HOWTO - LIBREOFFICE Pt18

in the Tasks pane. Click on Add,

which opens the animations dialog.

Here you can select the animation

you want for the object(s)

selected.

Impress provides four different

animation types:

Entrance: These animations play as

the object appears on the page.

Emphasis: These animations are

used to create emphasis such as

changing colors, blinking, etc.

Exit: These animations play as the

object leaves the page.

Motion Path: These animations

cause the object to follow a

defined path.

There is a fifth tab in the

animations dialog related to media

objects. They allow you to start,

stop, and pause media objects.

Once you have selected your

animation, click OK.

The Effect section of the

animation pane give you the ability

to fine-tune your animation. Start

controls what event will trigger

your animation. On Click will

trigger the animation when the

mouse button is clicked or you

press the space-bar. With Previous

triggers the animation when the

animation before it plays. After

Previous plays the animation after

the previous animation. The

second control relates directly to

the type of animation you select. If

it is a motion animation, it asks you

for a direction. If the animation

changes colors, it will asks you for

a color. Finally, the Speed controls

the speed at which the animation

plays.

full circle magazine #65

Elmer Perry's history of working,

and programming, computers

involves an Apple IIE, adding some

Amiga, a generous helping of DOS

and Windows, a dash of Unix, and

blend well with Linux and Ubuntu.

HOWTO - LIBREOFFICE Pt18

Animation Example

The real power of animations

comes when you combine them to

create interesting effects for your

objects. In our example, the effect

we will create will display items in

a list one at a time. As the next

items displays, the previous one

will gray out. Finally, all the list

items will fade out before the slide

transition.

Create a new slide, and, in the

text area, add four list items.

Select all four list items, and click

Add in the Custom Animation

pane. On the Entrance tab, select

Fly In and click OK. Select each of

the animations in the animations

pane and set the start to on click,

direction to from bottom, and the

speed to a speed that looks good

on your machine.

For the color change effect,

select the first three items in the

text area of the slide, and click the

Add button. On the Emphasis tab,

select Change Font Color, and click

OK. For each of these three new

animations, change the start to

with previous, the color to gray,

and the speed to a speed that

looks good on your machine. Move

the color change animation for the

first item up using the Change

order arrows. Move it up under the

entrance animation for the second

item. Move the second change

color animation up under the third

entrance animation, and leave the

third color change under the

fourth entrance animation.

Finally, we will create the fade

for all the items. Select all four list

items in the slide's text area. Click

on Add in the animation pane. On

the Exit tab, select Dissolve and

click OK. Set the first exit to start

on click and the other three to

after previous. Select a speed for

the dissolve that works for your

machine.

Test your animations by clicking

on Slide Show in the animation

pane. If you set everything

correctly, each item should fly in

from the bottom and gray out

when you click the mouse. At the

end, all four items should dissolve.

Transitions and animation are

key to creating a professional

looking presentation. If you are

careful to not get carried away,

you can create a polished and

memorable presentation for your

audience. Remember that the idea

behind a presentation is to present

your ideas to your audience, not to

impress them with fancy, overdone

transitions and animations.

The Ubuntu Podcast covers all

the latest news and issues facing

Ubuntu Linux users and Free

Software fans in general. The

show appeals to the newest user

and the oldest coder. Our

discussions cover the

development of Ubuntu but

aren’t overly technical. We are

lucky enough to have some

great guests on the show, telling

us first hand about the latest

exciting developments they are

working on, in a way that we can

all understand! We also talk

about the Ubuntu community

and what it gets up to.

The show is presented by

members of the UK’s Ubuntu

Linux community. Because it is

covered by the Ubuntu Code of

Conduct it is suitable for all.

The show is broadcast live every

fortnight on a Tuesday evening

(British time) and is available for

download the following day.

podcast.ubuntu-uk.org

full circle magazine #65

Written by Paddy Landau

hen you installed

Ubuntu, perhaps you

didn’t opt for

encryption; or, you

added a user without encryption –

but now, you have changed your

mind and want encryption. In other

words, you (or another user on the

computer) wants, but does not

have, encryption.

How do you add encryption

after the event?

Fortunately, this is quite easy.

There are three main steps:

• Make an encrypted copy of your

folder.

• Remove the original unencrypted

folder.

• Encrypt your swap area. (You

need this last step only the very

first time you encrypt, whether it

was during installation or

following this how-to.)

I have tested this on Ubuntu

Precise 12.04 (fully updated).

Prepare

Due to an existing bug, you will

not be able to log in if your

wallpaper is in the home folder of

the user to be encrypted. If the

user has customized the wallpaper,

please ensure that it is not stored

within their home folder.

This procedure is safe as it

creates an encrypted copy of your

home folder. That does mean,

however, that you will have

sufficient space on your disk. If you

don’t have enough space, please

back up your data, delete large

files (e.g. movies), and restore

them after encryption. (I normally

recommend that you back up all

your data anyway in case of

accidental problems.)

Using your favorite package

manager, install ecryptfs-utils.

Encrypt

In this how-to, I’ve used my

name paddy as the user. Please

replace it with the user to be

encrypted.

Boot into Recovery Mode (when

you boot, press and hold Shift until

you get the Grub menu. The

“recovery mode” is usually the

second item from the top).

At the Recovery Mode menu,

select Drop to root shell prompt.

Enter the following commands

to fix existing bugs.

mount options remount,rw /

mount all

The following command

prompts for your password and

makes an encrypted copy of your

folder.

ecryptfsmigratehome user

paddy

When it has finished running,

you will see some warnings. Ignore

the warnings; but you do need to

take a note of the temporary

folder that it has created. It looks

something like

/home/paddy.ChPzzxqD, but the

last eight characters will be

random. You’ll need it when you

Finalize or Revert below.

Enter the following command

to reboot (it may take several

seconds to get going, so be

patient).

reboot now

Finalize

Now, log in normally. Does

everything work?

If it did not work, skip to Revert

below.

If it did work, finish up as

follows:

Open a terminal and enter this

command. Use the random-

character folder that you noted in

step 5 in Encrypt.

sudo rm R

/home/paddy.ChPzzxqD

Restore any data that you had

deleted (if any) in Prepare above.

Open a terminal and enter the

following command. If you already

had an encrypted user on your

system, you can safely skip this

full circle magazine #65

HOWTO - ADD ENCRYPTION

step.

sudo ecryptfssetupswap

Reboot.

Revert

If your encryption did not

succeed, you’ll need to restore

your previous setup.

Repeat steps 1–3 from Encrypt

above.

Enter the following command

using your random-character

folder from step 5 in Encrypt. You

should not see an error; if you do,

ask for help.

ls l /home/paddy.ChPzzxqD

Now revert with the following

commands.

cd /home

rm R paddy .ecryptfs/paddy

mv paddy.ChPzzxqD paddy

Reboot.

I hope this helps you. If you

have insurmountable problems,

please post a query on my thread

on Ubuntu Forums

(http://ubuntuforums.org/showthr

ead.php?t=1987630).

Hibernate with

Encryption

A number of people have

wondered why Ubuntu has no

Hibernate option any more, and

how to restore it. The reason is

encryption. If you have encryption,

the swap space is also encrypted,

but with a random key. When you

hibernate, the data is stored to

your swap space; when you

resume, the random key is lost and

so the system cannot read the

swap space.

To restore hibernation to

Ubuntu if you do not have

encryption is easy – just perform

only steps 6 and 8 in Set up

hibernation below.

But if you do have encryption,

you need to replace the random

key for swap with a passphrase of

your choosing.

Note, however, that every user

of the computer will need to know

that passphrase in order to boot!

I have tested this with Ubuntu

12.04 both natively and in Virtual

Box. The latter has a problem with

displaying the screen when

resuming, but the native

installation worked perfectly.

Prepare

Enter the following command.

sudo cryptsetup status

cryptswap1

In the results, you’ll see a line

indicating the device, which looks

something like /dev/sda1 or

/dev/sdb5. This is your swap

device. Take a note of it, as you’ll

need it later.

I always recommend a full

backup before changing your

system.

Set Up Hibernation

Enter the following commands.

Ensure you replace /dev/sdXN with

your swap device from Prepare

above. Please take care to type

them in the right order.

sudo swapoff

/dev/mapper/cryptswap1

sudo cryptsetup luksClose

/dev/mapper/cryptswap1

sudo cryptsetup luksFormat

cipher aescbcessiv:sha256

verifypassphrase key

size 256 /dev/sdXN

WARNING!

========

This will overwrite data on

/dev/sda1 irrevocably.

Are you sure? (Type uppercase

yes): YES

Enter LUKS passphrase: [type

your new passphrase]

Verify passphrase: [type your

new passphrase again]

sudo cryptsetup luksOpen

/dev/sdXN cryptswap1

Enter passphrase for /dev/sda1:

[type your new passphrase yet

again]

sudo mkswap

/dev/mapper/cryptswap1

sudo swapon all

swapon s

The last command should

display a filename

/dev/cryptswap1.

Using your favorite editor (or

full circle magazine #65

HOWTO - ADD ENCRYPTION

you can press Alt-F2 and enter

gksudo gedit), edit the file

/etc/crypttab. Replace the existing

cryptswap1 line as follows

(remember to replace /dev/sdXN

with your swap device).

cryptswap1 /dev/sdXN none

luks

Now edit the file

/usr/share/initramfs-

tools/scripts/local-top/cryptroot.

Search for the following line

(which should be on line 288, but

that could change over time):

message "cryptsetup: unknown

error setting up device

mapping"

Skip to the next blank line

(before FSTYPE='') and insert a

new line (remember to replace

/dev/sdXN):

/sbin/cryptsetup luksOpen

/dev/sdXN cryptswap1

Edit the file

/etc/acpi/hibernate.sh. At the first

blank line, insert the following line.

DEVICE='/dev/mapper/cryptswap

Edit the file /etc/initramfs-

tools/conf.d/resume. Replace the

existing line with:

RESUME=/dev/mapper/cryptswap1

Edit the file /etc/polkit-

1/localauthority/50-

local.d/com.ubuntu.enable-

hibernate.pkla. The file does not

already exist, so you’ll be creating

it. Add the following lines.

[Reenable hibernate by

default]

Identity=unixuser:*

Action=org.freedesktop.upower

.hibernate

ResultActive=yes

Finally, open a terminal and

enter the following command.

sudo updateinitramfs u k

all

Reboot.

Using Hibernation

When starting, your machine

will prompt you for your new swap

passphrase. Enter it, and you

should continue to a normal login.

If you forget the passphrase,

enter anything. After three failed

attempts, the machine will

continue anyway, but with the

swap disabled. Redo this how-to to

reset your passphrase.

Now, you will find Hibernate on

your shutdown menu, and you can

hibernate! If you wish to hibernate

from the CLI (command line

interface), use the command:

sudo pmhibernate

full circle magazine #65

Written by Ronnie Tucker

ast time, we joined two

clips with a dissolve (or

fading) transition. This

time, we’ll look at effects.

Transitions allow you to go from

one clip to another; an effect is

done on a particular clip to alter its

appearance.

Add a clip to a project, then

right click on it and have a look at

the effects available in the ‘Add

Effect’ menu.

Effects are grouped according

to the desired effect. If I choose

Add Effect > Fun > Old Film and

Add Effect > Fun > Scratchlines,

the names of the effects applied

are shown on the preview, and (in

this case) my video will jump and

have imperfections as you’d expect

in an old film.

To remove effects, you simply

click the X above the effect in the

effect properties box beside the

list of clips.

This is the same place you can

edit the effect properties to your

liking.

Effects aren’t just for fun,

though. Applying Add Effect >

Enhancement > Denoiser (or

Sharpen) allows you to enhance

the look of your clip. The Add

Effect > Colour Correction effects

will allow you to fix the brightness,

contrast and colors within your

clip.

Although it may seem that I

haven’t shown much in these two

parts, it’s up to you to experiment

with overlapping clips and trying

out the different transitions

available. Same with effects. Try

them out, one at a time, to see

full circle magazine #65

Ronnie is the founder, and editor, of

Full Circle, an official Ubuntu

member, and part-time artist whose

work can be seen at:

http://ronnietucker.co.uk

HOWTO - KDENLIVE Pt 2

how they change your clip(s), and

in no time you’ll have amazing

looking clips merging into one

another.

Before finishing out this part,

I’d like to show you how to quickly

trim a clip. Let’s say you have your

perfect scene, but before the main

scene, it shows (let’s say) you

putting the camera down, and

then, at the end, it shows you

picking the camera up again.

Ideally you want to remove the

intro and ending from that clip to

leave only the steady perfect shot.

What you can do is drag the entire

clip into the video timeline, then

play/scrub through the video until

you find where you want the clip to

start. Stop there. Now, if you hover

your pointer of the start of the clip

you’ll see a green glowing arrow

appear. Drag that over to where

you want your start to be. You’ve

now trimmed the junk from the

start.

Now do the same at the end.

Voila! The perfect clip.

Here’s a nice tip, and something

for you to play around with until

next time. Many video shots are

handheld and quite shaky. Right

click on a clip (in your top left

window), and choose Stabilize >

Videostab. It can take some time to

complete (a little progress bar will

appear over the clip thumbnail), so

do it only on short clips for now.

If there’s anything you’d like to

see covered in this series, please

drop me an email at:

ronnie@fullcirclemagazine.org.

Next month, we’ll add some

titles to our video.

Solutions are on the second last page.

Numbers 0 to 9 and letters A to F are to be filled into the

16x16 grid so that every row, every column, and every

4x4 box contains 0 to 9 and A - F.

Puzzles are copyright, and kindly provided by,

The Puzzle Club - www.thepuzzleclub.com

full circle magazine #65

Written by Mark Crutch

ast month, I introduced

the Fill and Stroke dialog

as a method for setting

flat colors or patterns on

your objects. The SVG specification

also allows for gradients to be

used, but, unfortunately, describes

only two types: linear and radial. If

you've used gradients in other

graphics programs, you may be

used to far more variety, but

Inkscape is bound by the

limitations of the SVG specification

so, for now at least, two gradient

types are all you have. Inkscape has

separate buttons for these in the

Fill and Stroke Paint tabs of the

dialog: as you might

expect, one looks like a

linear gradient:

and the other looks like a

radial gradient:

Whichever one you choose,

you'll be faced with the same user

interface within the dialog (above

right).

The first item is a pop-up list of

the gradients that already exist

within your document. The

currently selected gradient, at the

top of the list, will be the new one

that you're in the process of

creating. If you prefer to use an

existing gradient, then you can

simply select another one from the

list. Each gradient gets given a

user-unfriendly name, such as the

“linearGradient3791” in the

screenshot. Unfortunately,

Inkscape doesn't provide a

practical user interface for

modifying this name, so, once you

have more than a handful of

gradients in a document, it can

quickly become an unwieldy list

which gives little indication of

where each one is used in your

image.

Your new gradient will always

take the same basic form: it has a

start color which is set to a fully

opaque version of your current fill

color (or to black if there is no fill

color set), and it has an end color

which is the same as the start color

– but with its alpha value set to

zero. The result is a gradient

running from an opaque color to a

transparent color which runs from

left to right for a linear gradient,

and from the center outwards for a

radial gradient:

If you double-click on your

object – so that you enter editing

mode and can see the small

handles we've explored in previous

articles – you'll also find that two

or three new handles have

appeared, joined by lines and

indicating the start and end points

of your gradients as square and

circular handles respectively. You

can drag these handles around –

even outside the boundary of your

object – in order to change the

position and angle of your

gradient. For radial gradients, the

two end points can be moved

independently, allowing you to

have circular or elliptical gradients.

When you click on one of the

gradient handles, you'll notice that

the Fill and Stroke dialog switches

back to the Flat Color mode, with

the selected color also reflected in

the swatches in the bottom-left

corner of the main Inskcape

window. The color you can see is

that of the selected end point of

full circle magazine #65

HOWTO - INKSCAPE Pt5

your gradient, and you can change

it in any of the ways we've

discussed previously. Try selecting

the transparent end, clicking on

another color swatch, and then

playing with the opacity slider or

the “O” spin-box. This approach

lets you create gradients that

change smoothly between any two

colors.

A gradient with two colors is all

well and good, but what happens if

you want three, four, or a whole

rainbow? You could create multiple

objects, each with a part of the

overall gradient, but that quickly

gets complex and unwieldy. In

practice the answer is simpler than

you might think – we just create

more handles on our gradients.

Instead of a start and end handle,

we'll have one or more in the

middle as well. These handles each

define a particular color in the

gradient, and are usually referred

to as “stops”.

To add a new stop to a gradient

we need to make it clear to

Inkscape that we want to edit the

gradient rather than the

object itself, by selecting

the Gradient tool:

from the toolbox (or by

pressing “g” or CTRL-F1). Now it's

possible to double-click on the line

that joins your existing stops in

order to add a new stop. It will

default to the color and opacity at

that point on the line, so the visual

appearance of your object won't

change – but now that the new

stop exists, you can select it and

change its color. You can also drag

stops along the line, crowding

them together for a sharp

transition between colors, or

spreading them out for something

more gradual. Very quickly, it's

easy to create garish multi-colored

gradients, although more subtle

color changes between stops will

often give a better artistic effect.

While the Gradient tool is

active, you can still move the end

stops to modify the size and angle

of the gradient. When you're done,

just select your object using the

Select tool in order to return to the

familiar view of the Fill and Stroke

dialog with the gradient in place. A

useful shortcut for this step is to

just hit the space-bar. In most

cases, this will toggle between the

current tool and the Select tool,

switching back and forth with each

press.

Let's go back to a simpler

gradient with only two stops. The

quick way to do that is to switch

your fill to Flat Color, and then

back to a gradient again, returning

you to the default arrangement of

a fade from opaque to transparent

– centered on your object. The Fill

and Stroke dialog should look like

the first image in this article once

more, giving us a chance to explore

the remaining options on the

screen.

The Duplicate button is almost

self explanatory. It duplicates

whichever gradient is currently

selected in the pop-up menu, and

applies the duplicate to the

currently selected object. That last

point is important – it means that

you can happily change the stop

colors and positions in the

duplicated gradient without

affecting any objects that use the

original version. As such, it can be a

convenient starting point if you

already have a gradient that's close

to the one you need, but not quite

perfect.

The Edit… button we'll come

back to shortly.

The Repeat pop-up is used to

define what happens beyond the

start and end stops of your

gradient. The default setting is

“none”, in which case the area

before the start handle will take on

the same color as the start handle

itself, and the area beyond the end

handle will likewise take on the

color of the end stop. Both the

other settings repeat the gradient:

“reflected” causes the gradient to

reverse for each repeat, giving a

smooth transition that cycles as

Start-End, End-Start, Start-End,

End-Start…; “direct” uses the

gradient as it stands, giving a more

abrupt cycle of Start-End, Start-

End, Start-End, Start-End… As is

often the case, a picture

demonstrating this makes far more

sense than a textual description, so

here are three pairs of gradients

full circle magazine #65

Mark has been using Linux since

1994, and uses Inkscape to create

two webcomics, 'The Greys' and

'Monsters, Inked' which can both be

found at:

http://www.peppertop.com/

HOWTO - INKSCAPE Pt5

demonstrating “none,” “reflected”

and “direct” modes using the

gradients shown in the top pair:

Now we'll return to that Edit…

button. If you click it, you'll bring

up a gradient editor window. This

is an alternative interface for

editing gradients: you can add and

remove stops, change their

position within the gradient, and

alter their colors – exactly the

same features that are available by

editing using the Gradient tool on

the canvas except that the editor

won't help you to change the

position and angle of your

gradients within your objects. The

gradient editor dialog has been

officially deprecated though, and

will likely be removed in a future

release in favor of some additions

to the on-canvas editing, so I won't

go into any more detail about it.

Throughout this article I've

talked about editing the fill. But

you can also apply a gradient to

your object's stroke. Here we have

two thick-stroked rectangles, one

with a linear gradient for the

stroke, and the other with a radial

gradient:

Being able to use a gradient for

the stroke can be a useful

workaround for one of SVG's (and

therefore Inkscape's) limitations:

strokes are always a fixed width.

This restriction makes it difficult to

draw lines that taper out, but using

a stroke that fades to transparent

can often give a similar visual

effect, especially with thin lines:

There is one feature that crops

up when using both fill and stroke

gradients which can sometimes

feel more like a bug: Inkscape likes

to 'help' by snapping the handles

of gradients together so that you

can manipulate them as one. In this

example, I've drawn a square with

a yellow fill and blue stroke, then

clicked the linear gradient buttons

in the Fill and Stroke dialog. It

looks like there's

only one pair of

gradient handles,

but that's because

one set is on top of

the other.

If you wish to modify just the fill

or the stroke gradient, the obvious

thing to do would be to grab the

visible handles and move them out

of the way to reveal the second

pair below, right? If you try that,

you'll find that Inkscape's

propensity for

snapping gradient

handles together

means that both

sets of handles

move as one.

The solution to this conundrum

is simply to hold the SHIFT button

as you drag the handles around.

This will let you

separate them, and

prevent them

snapping back

together if they get

too close to one

another.

Now that you can create

gradients, perhaps it's time to

replace the simple blurred shading

on your snowman with some radial

gradients, to give him a little more

depth. Don't forget linear

gradients for his nose, arms, hat

and pipe.

As a

finishing

touch, a

nicely

shaded sky

is usually

interesting

than a flat

plane.

full circle magazine #65

Written by Michael R. Youngblood

hat is a CRUD? CRUD

is an acronym for

Create, Remove,

Update, and Display:

the main basic premise for any app.

Remember, a program is just a

way to create, edit, and display

data. It really doesn’t matter if it is

an office app, or even a game, all it

is doing is taking data inputed, and

either creating, removing, or

updating the current sets of data.

To start off we need an idea.

We could go with the usual

suspects: to-do lists, recipes, and

shopping lists. I was thinking of

something a little more specific to

Ubuntu, an app that tells us

versions of Ubuntu. This is an idea

that has plenty of possibilities to

grow with, so let’s get started.

Side note: if you are having

troubles choosing a good text

editor to code with, I would like to

suggest my favorite. Sublime Text

2 is a very feature-packed and

stable editor and I tend to have a

lot of fun with it. I also rely on it a

lot. Here is a URL to a quick review

I did a while back, if you are

interested in reading more about

it:

http://www.aliendev.com/program

ming/review-sublime-text-2

First we need to think about the

information that we need to keep.

The version number and names are

good enough to start off with. Now

that we know what we are going to

do, we need to get set up... Create

your working folder; I’m going to

call mine FCM-UbuntuVers. Inside

of that, create your css, images, js,

and js/libs folders. Now create

some blank files: index.html in the

root, style.css

in css, and

main.js in the

js folder.

Below is a

screenshot of

the directory

map to give

you the big

picture.

Now, we can get to some

coding. I like to start out with my

standard HTML5 template. The

template is pretty straightforward

assuming you have even a little

experience with HTML5. First there

is the doctype, with the value of

just html telling the document

object that it is, you guessed it,

HTML5. There is a UTF-8

declaration, title tag, some meta

data, stylesheet call, the body of

the HTML, our header, article, and

footer tags, and of course the main

js call.

Next we are going to add a

basic form, making sure to include

id’s, placeholders, value, and name

attributes. We also want to include

labels for good practice. The full

HTML example is at:

http://pastebin.com/TtReQAWb.

Now that we have our HTML,

we need to make sure we add

something to test the CSS and JS

files that we are including within

the HTML. This task is easy enough,

just include a line per file like so:

main.js

alert(‘JS included’);

style.css

footer { color: #ccc; }

Now, it is time to view the setup

in your web browser. Notice the

popup alert telling you the JS was

included. For the CSS test, direct

your attention to the footer. The

color of the text should be a light

gray.

Now that we are all set, prepare

yourself. Next month, we will go

over the code more closely.

Cheers!

Michael Youngblood has been in the

industry of web design and

development for 13 years. He has

been working for a world wide

wireless tech corp for six years and is

working on his bachelor’s of science

in mobile development.

full circle magazine #65

Written by Ronnie Tucker

Guidelines

he single rule for an

article is that it must

somehow be linked to

Ubuntu or one of the

many derivatives of Ubuntu

(Kubuntu, Xubuntu, Lubuntu, etc).

Rules

• There is no word limit for articles,

but be advised that long articles

may be split across several issues.

• For advice, please refer to the

Official Full Circle Style Guide:

http://url.fullcirclemagazine.org/7

5d471

• Write your article in whichever

software you choose, I would

recommend LibreOffice, but most

importantly - PLEASE SPELL AND

GRAMMAR CHECK IT!

• In your article, please indicate

where you would like a particular

image to be placed by indicating

the image name in a new

paragraph or by embedding the

image in the ODT (Open Office)

document.

• Images should be JPG, no wider

than 800 pixels, and use low

compression.

• Do not use tables or any type of

bold or formatting.

If you are writing a review,

please follow these guidelines :

When you are ready to submit

your article please email it to:

articles@fullcirclemagazine.org

Translations

If you would like to translate

Full Circle into your native

language please send an email to

ronnie@fullcirclemagazine.org and

we will either put you in touch with

an existing team, or give you

access to the raw text to translate

from. With a completed PDF, you

will be able to upload your file to

the main Full Circle site.

REVIEWS

Games/Applications

When reviewing games/applications please state clearly:

• title of the game

• who makes the game

• is it free, or a paid download?

• where to get it from (give download/homepage URL)

• is it Linux native, or did you use Wine?

• your marks out of five

• a summary with positive and negative points

Hardware

When reviewing hardware please state clearly:

• make and model of the hardware

• what category would you put this hardware into?

• any glitches that you may have had while using the hardware?

• easy to get the hardware working in Linux?

• did you have to use Windows drivers?

• marks out of five

• a summary with positive and negative points

You don't need to be an expert to write an

article - write about the games, applications

and hardware that you use every day.

UPDATED!

full circle magazine #65

https://spideroak.com

Get 25% off any SpiderOak package

with the code: FullcirclemagFans

full circle magazine #65

Written by Copil Yáňez

i, everyone! Welcome

back to Ask the New

Guy! If you’re new to

Ubuntu, thinking about

switching to Linux, or need

something explained to you like

you’re five, look no further. Send

your (simple) questions to me at

copil.yanez@gmail.com and I’ll do

my best to answer them.

Today I’m going to answer a

question a lot of new users,

including myself, ask upon

boarding the good ship Ubuntu:

Q: What the hell is a command

line?!

For many of us, the command

line is kinda daunting. Oh, who am I

kidding, it’s foreboding and scary.

I mean look at it, just sitting

there, staring at you with its one

good eye, blinking away. Waiting.

Even so, you can’t swing a

penguin around here without

hitting someone going on and on

about pipe this and chown that. If

the command line is so spooky,

why do so many seemingly sane

people use it? It’s as if the Linux

community is populated by cliche

horror movie characters, the kind

who hear knife-y type sounds in

the basement and go investigate in

their Pajama Pants instead of

calling the police.

I mean, what are command line

users getting out of the experience

(other than re-living their Matthew

Broderick War Games fantasies)?

After all, Ubuntu is so user-friendly.

Need to open a program? Just click

a few menus and you’re there.

Better yet, under Unity, just type

the program’s name and watch

icons appear as if by magic and

then click the one you want.

This user-friendliness gives rise

to the second most common

reaction to the command line

besides screaming Bloody Mary

and losing bowel control. New

users who are not scared of the

command line think it’s, well,

boooooring.

Try to explain to a reluctant

new user how cool the command

line is. It’s a little like trying to

explain Mutually Assured

Destruction to a modern teenager.

They can tell it means something

to you because your face is all red

and that vein on your forehead is

about to pop. But as soon as you

leave the room, they jump on

Twitter:

You want to shake them and say

“We were scared, son! Duck and

cover was a thing!” But, of course,

it all just seems so quaint to them.

Well, it turns out the command

line is not nearly as scary as some

think, nor is it the digital

equivalent of a Matlock rerun, of

interest only to the old timers.

It’s actually useful to new users

and even more so for those who

spend a little time getting

comfortable with it.

But let’s back up and start with

a definition. On second thought,

forget that. I just looked it up and

there was talk about CLIs, old

teleprinter machines, something

called TTY, shells, and then I

noticed the Google Doodle was

Star Trek and, well, I got

distracted.

Let’s just say the command line

is a place where you type

full circle magazine #65

commands. Then, when you press

ENTER, stuff happens.

Boom. Checkmate, Wikipedia.

Okay, so how do you use it?

In the same way that the best

camera for you isn’t the most

expensive one – it’s the one you’ll

actually use – the best way to use

the command line is in a way that

encourages you to keep using it.

When I initially looked into

using the command line, it was like

dating a spider women: lots of

anxiety and a very real fear I might

die.

Then I decided to try it only on

relatively simple or repetitive tasks

until I became more comfortable

with it.

For example, I use the

command line in the same way I

use keyboard shortcuts like ctrl-x

and ctrl-v. I cut and paste so often,

using menus would interrupt my

workflow and slow things down.

What’s a common task you can

try doing at the command line to

get you comfortable using it? My

guess is you open the same

browser every time you log onto

your computer. Let’s start there.

Go to your Ubuntu desktop (or

whatever flavor Linux you’re

running, this should work on most

installs).

Press ctrl-alt-t. You should see

something like this.

Remember him, the creeper?

Don’t panic, I went back and

checked with his exes. Turns out

he’s not a creeper, he’s just shy

around people.

Okay, so what are we looking

at? It’s called a terminal window

and blah, blah, blah. Who cares? All

you need to know for now is that

the flashing cursor is where you

type your commands. All the

gibberish before the cursor doesn’t

really matter either. Time enough

to explore that stuff later if you’re

still interested. For now let’s keep

it super simple.

So you’ve got a window like the

one above and that blinking cursor

insists you do something or it’s just

going to cross its arms and stare at

you (his exes says he does that

sometimes, too—totally harmless).

Let’s give it something to do.

Type:

firefox

and press ENTER.

What happened?

If a Firefox browser window

opened, pat yourself on the back

and buy yourself that pair of suede

peek-a-boo toe Louboutins you’ve

always wanted. You’re a command

line user now, time to reward

yourself!

Okay, so you’re thinking, “Wait,

that took longer than double-

clicking my browser icon or finding

it on a menu.”

Maybe. But now try this. Close

the terminal window. Firefox

should close with it.

Type ctrl-alt-t again. When the

terminal window returns and you

get the blinking cursor, press the

up arrow key on your keyboard.

The word firefox will magically

appear! Press ENTER. Firefox is

back! You’re a rock star!

The command line remembers

what you did last. So, even long

strings of commands can be called

up instantly and run without ever

taking your fingers off the

keyboard.

Admittedly, this is a very

simplistic example. You can

experiment with other commands

like ls (lists the contents of the

directory you’re in) or cd filename

(switches you to the directory you

specify). When you decide you

want to try something at the

command line (like download and

install a program), just type what

you want to do into a search

engine and you’ll typically find a

tutorial to help. Or send me an

email and I’ll help if I can.

The point is, start with things

that are useful to you and that are

within your comfort zone, and then

move to more complex commands

as you gain confidence.

Think of the command line as

the $107,000 Nissan GT-R sports

car we all get with every Ubuntu

install (if you haven’t received your

car yet, get in touch with Mark

ASK THE NEW GUY

full circle magazine #65

Shuttleworth right away). It’s

incredibly powerful, somewhat

dangerous if used incorrectly, and

it can be a beast to handle. Using

the command line to run simple,

repetitive tasks is the equivalent

of toggling LAUNCH CONTROL on

the GT-R to keep you from

splattering yourself all over the

pavement.

Once you feel more

comfortable you can switch the

toggle to STUPID FAST and floor

the accelerator!

Look, I’m not proselytizing here.

I’ll be the first to tell you to stay

away from the command line if it

just doesn’t add value to your

computing experience, or, worse

yet, sours you on Ubuntu or Linux.

But, sometimes fear or

misperception keeps us from

learning simple, useful commands.

Start with these and you’re more

likely to keep using the command

line in the future.

I hope this has encouraged you

to take a plunge into the command

line if you haven’t experienced it

already. Very soon you’ll be piping

and chowning like a boss!*

* I have no idea what pipe and

chown do but they sound mildly

pornographic so I’m willing to give

them a try.

If you have a simple question

and want an answer that doesn’t

look like a nuclear reactor

schematic, contact me at

copil.yanez@gmail.com.

ASK THE NEW GUY

Copil is an Aztec name that roughly

translates to “you need my heart for

what again?” His love of women’s

shoes is chronicled at

yaconfidential.blogspot.com. You

can also watch him embarrass

himself on Twitter (@copil).

Solutions are on the second last page.

Every number in the grid is 'code' for a letter of the alphabet.

Thus the number '2' may correspond to the letter 'L', for instance.

All - except the difficult codeword puzzles - come with a few

letters to start you off

Puzzles are copyright, and kindly provided by,

The Puzzle Club - www.thepuzzleclub.com

full circle magazine #65

Written by Charles McColm

n issues #62 and #64 I wrote

about Tweet Screen, a twitter

picture frame I created using

an aging Celeron-based

notebook and a picture frame. The

frame was inspired by a smaller

Twitter screen I saw at a Kitchener,

Ontario, Canada makerspace,

Kwartzlab.

Kwartzlab membership for

anytime access is $50/month, but

the group holds an open night to

the public every Tuesday night and

often holds other open events on

Saturdays (such as an Ubuntu

release party or global bug jam).

Kwartzlab is over 3000 square

feet of maker goodness. In the

main meeting space/wifi lounge,

the group has several

workstations, soldering benches,

an array of screwdrivers and

smaller tools, as well as a number

of measurement instruments.

Off to the left of the space,

barely visible in the photo below

left is a computer running RepRap

Mendel software on Ubuntu Linux,

which controls a 3D printer. The

yellow spool feeding the printer is

polylactide (PLA), a kind of

polyester made from renewable

resources. Kwartzlab members

have used the printer to fabricate

parts for other projects and

models.

Visible next to the 3D printer

are several examples of laser

etched pictures (plus a small

Tardis) etched/cut on the space’s

large laser cutter. Designs are

inputted into a notebook, then

sent to the cutter. The etching

cutting process can take a long

time depending on what’s being

full circle magazine #65

LINUX LAB

created so time is typically booked

on the laser cutter.

Member Mark Pitcher was the

first to show me some of the

projects he’s been working on.

Mark has owned several midi-

sequencers in the past, but wanted

something more portable, so he

started putting together a couple

of ideas for mini-midi sequencers,

one of which is arduino driven. He

also showed me an older electronic

drum kit he’s been in the process

of restoring and an arduino-driven

tripod mount that rotates at

programmable intervals for

panoramic photography.

Kwartzlab has an artist in

residence every month. This month

Tracy Fewster was exhibiting her

acrylic work and took the time to

talk with me about how she

became an artist, and to give

advice for aspiring artists. Tracy’s

journey into the art world began

and almost ended with a teacher

telling her that her artwork was

substandard. Determination and

love of what she was doing drove

Tracy to continue developing her

passion. Tracy suggests reading

about art, continuously

investigating different techniques,

and searching the Internet to

clarify anything that isn’t clear, is a

good way to improve.

Shortly after talking with Tracy,

the room got called to order for a

presentation by Eva Bodahelyi, a

visitor from a Guelph, Ontario,

makerspace called Diyode, on

Laser etching. Kwartzlab members

have cut and etched a fair amount

of art (including a 3D model of a

Tardis), but Eva has refined the

etching technique using

PhotoShop and GIMP so more

detailed pictures can be printed.

On open nights Kwartzlab

encourages people to bring

projects they want to work on.

Besides the laser cutter, 3D

printer, and various measurement

tools, Kwartzlab has a whole back

room full of other machining

equipment. Among the equipment

is a CNC router which member Don

Liebold hacked together using a

controller, dremel, and a man-sized

old tape storage unit. Also among

the available equipment are

welding systems, a centrifuge, 2

band saws, a table saw, 2 drill

presses, a belt sander, routing

table, and a radial saw. This tool

list covers only the basics. Kwartlab

is always adding equipment and

improving the space.

Subsequent to my visit at

Kwartzlab, I met member Darcy

Casselman at an Ubuntu Hour

event. Darcy brought me up to

speed on the Kwartzlab Twitter

screen, actually a Chumby device

running the Chumby Twitter plug-

in.

Thanks to all the Kwartzlab

members for talking with me and

for being so generous by allowing

Full Circle Magazine to display

them and their maker projects and

works of art.

More details about Kwartzlab can

be found on their web site at:

http://www.kwartzlab.ca/

The Diyode maker space also

maintains a web presence:

http://www.diyode.com/

Charles is a step-father, husband,

and Linux fan, who hosts a not-for-

profit computer refurbishing

project. When not breaking

hardware/servers, he maintains a

blog at:

http://www.charlesmccolm.com/

full circle magazine #65

Written by:

Ronnie Tucker (KDE)

Jan Mussche (Gnome)

Elizabeth Krumbach (XFCE)

Mark Boyajian (LXDE)

arely will anyone want

to continually type a

networked folder by

name, and this is where

network drive mapping comes in

handy. In Windows XP you can

assign an unused drive letter to a

folder on the network. In the

example above

\\storage01\sharename (a folder

on the network) will become W: in

My Computer. A similar thing can

be done in most *buntu distros.

Kubuntu

Drive mapping in Kubuntu is

quite easy. Simply browse through

your network until you find a folder

you would like a shortcut to. Right

click on the folder and choose “Add

to places”.

Your folder will show on the list

in the left panel. The globe

signifies a network item.

You can remove the item from

the list by right clicking on it and

choosing “Remove entry...”.

You can use this handy trick as a

sidebar shortcut for almost any

folder local or networked.

Gnome-Shell

In Gnome-Shell this works

almost the same. First, find the

folder or disk you want to mount in

Nautilus, then right-click it and

choose Mount. The mounted folder

will now appear in the left column

in Nautilus. From there you can

choose it as if it were a local folder.

When you want to un-mount it, just

right-click on the mounted folder in

the left panel of Nautilus and

choose un-mount.

This is nice, but needs to be

done every time you boot your

computer since the mount won’t

last. For a sticky mount you have to

use the /etc/fstab file. In this file all

disks and folders which need to be

mounted during boot are listed. A

normal samba way of mounting a

full circle magazine #65

network disk or folder is:

//192.168.1.1/BackUp

/home/jan/shares/BackUp

cifs

rw,username=guest,password=,u

id=1000,iocharset=utf8,codepa

ge=unicode,unicode 0 0

Red part: address of network

folder in your network

Blue part: address of local mount

point

Grey part: cifs is synonym for the

samba protocol

Orange part: options you want to

add. These options work for guest-

access with read-write

permissions.

Be careful when editing this

file. It is a system file and can be

edited only by root. This should tell

you enough. Once damaged you

will have a really bad time fixing it

again. So, make a copy first before

you start editing.

It goes without saying that the

folder you want to mount should

be shared on the network. This can

be done like this:

As root, open the file

/etc/samba/smb.conf in gedit. This

is the file on the other computer,

the one with the folder you want

to look into. When this is a

Windows computer then it is only

necessary to add the computer to

the same network as your Linux

computer.

Make sure the following items

are in the smb.conf file.

[global]

workgroup = “Networkname you

use”

netbios name = “Computername”

[HomeJan] # Name of

shared folder

path = /home/jan/ # full

path

guest ok = yes # guest

allowed

writable = yes #

guests are allowed to write

The [global] section is written

once at the beginning of the file,

the shared folder part needs to be

written here for every folder you

want to share – of course with

different share name and path.

Reboot both systems, where it

is mandatory to boot the one with

the shared folder first. This way,

when the other computer boots

and the file fstab is being read, the

shared folder is present and can be

booted. Should you boot the other

computer first, no worries. Open a

terminal and type:

sudo mount a

Now fstab will be read again

and all folders will be booted.

Xubuntu

In Xubuntu, you can access

networked drives via the Thunar

file manager by going to

“Network” in the left hand panel

and navigating to the share.

You can then click on and drag

the share or specific directory you

wish to map over to the left hand

panel. This will map the location to

the panel for the duration of your

session.

Lubuntu

To “map” a network drive in

Lubuntu, you use the file manager,

PCManFM. For the purposes of this

exercise, it is assumed that you

already have access to the network

drive you want to map. With the

CLOSING WINDOWS

full circle magazine #65

file manager open, enter the

address of the network drive you

want to access so that you are

connected to it.

Once you are connected to the

drive you want to map, from the

menu bar in the file manager

select Bookmarks > Add To

Bookmarks.

You are then prompted for a

name for the bookmark.

The “bookmark”, in this case, is

the name you wish to assign to the

network drive to which you are

attached.

Click the OK button and the

network drive will be mapped to

the name you provided in the

dialog box.

The “bookmark” to the drive

will appear in the left pane of the

file manager.

Each time you boot into

Lubuntu, the system will respond

to this “bookmark” by attempting

to connect to the drive to which it

points. If the drive is found, then

clicking on this “bookmark” will

display the contents of the

network drive.

You can rename or remove the

bookmark by right-clicking it and

selecting the desired function.

Renaming the bookmark does not

affect its ability to connect to the

network drive you specified.

Next month we'll look at file

associations. If a file is associated

with an application then the OS

will automatically load the

application and open the file

when you open the file.

CLOSING WINDOWS

Ubuntu Needs You

Future Of The Papercuts Project

The Hundred Papercuts project is

vitally important to Ubuntu. As well as

focusing on the minor/trivial bugs that

developers typically triage down the

back of the desk, it provides a point of

entry for new contributors to learn the

processes involved in Ubuntu

development, get to grips with the

tools and find their way around the

code without getting in over their

heads.

The initial drive and enthusiasm with

which the project kicked off during the

Karmic cycle was all but faded into the

night, putting that value at risk. With

the help of the remaining contributors,

the Ubuntu Desktop team and the

community at large, this plan will

breath new life into what should be

the crown jewel in community

involvement in Ubuntu.

Discussion of ideas is taking place on

the Papercuts Ninja mailing list. You

can sign up to this list by joining the

Papercuts Ninja team on Launchpad.

The document is not, by any stretch of

the imagination, complete. It will

evolve over time with input from

various parts of the community until a

clear and concise plan for reviving the

papercuts project is established.

More information is available at:

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/FutureOfTh

ePapercutsProject

full circle magazine #65

Written by Theo van Oosten

hen I got my first

diode and resistor

from my father

when I was 11 years

old, it was clear what I was going

to be when I grew up. I tinkered

about with all kinds of electronics

including logic circuits from the

Texas Instruments 74LS00 family

chips (does anybody remember

those?). At the university,

somebody told me about

something called a microprocessor.

There was the Intel 8080, the

Motorola 6800, and a new kind: the

Zilog Z80 at a whopping 2.5 MHz!

The Z80A runs even at 4 MHz !

Wow….

So I build my own computer

from parts, with an enormous

amount of memory: 16 K bytes.

Dynamic memory of course, if I

wanted to use static memory I

could get only 4 Kbyte at the same

price. Sensitive stuff though,

dynamic memory. Without refresh,

it could remember what I put in it

for only a few seconds. I was happy

to use an EPROM (Erasable

Programmable Read Only Memory)

to contain the OS, because a hard

disk costs as much as a new car,

and even the new 8 inch floppy

drive costs a month salary. So I

used a compact cassette drive to

act as a floppy, slow, but it worked.

Programming was done by hand in

(hexadecimal) machine code, so I

knew everything there is to know

about the Z80, even the

undocumented instructions! I

made my own version of CP/M, the

predecessor of DOS, from

specifications. I impressed all the

people around me with my

printouts – did I have a print shop?

But the screen was text only.

Then the world changed. At first

there was the Atari 1040ST

(Motorola 68000 processor

at 16 MHz), and later

the Atari Falcon

(Motorola 68030

processor at

32 MHz) with

a beautiful

graphical

interface

(like

Windows

has, years

later).

Microsoft DOS and later Windows

was rubbish (and it still is), so I

refused to use it. But Atari went

bust, and in the shops you could

buy programs only for Windows, so

at last I caved and I bought me a PC

with Windows 98.

A few years before that (1984), I

got a job at a very large

steelmaking company where I

learned to program a very

advanced type of computer, the

Digital Equipment Corporation

(DEC) PDP 11 with the RSX 4.5

operating system. I got this job

because I had written programs in

machine code, and they just

bought a $100,000 program,

written in machine code,

which needed to be

altered to fit their

needs.

These PDP

11’s were

programmed

in a high level

programming

language

called RTL2 (I

do not think you

have ever heard of it). Later, we

switched to the DEC VAX with the

OpenVMS operating system, and

started programming in Pascal. It

became a lot easier then. We are

still using these computers, 25

years later! Why? Because they do

NOT crash, and viruses do not

exist. At one tim,e we decided to

reboot one of our VAX’s because it

had been running flawlessly for 2.5

years and we were not sure if it

would reboot correctly after a

(rare) crash (never happened), so

we wanted to do the reboot at our

convenience, without the pressure

from production. Of course,

without any problem.

After working there for 28

years, I expected programming to

become more functional versus

technical, but what happened?

Microsoft happened. They have

taken over the world, we are

programming in C again (back into

time), and the computers have to

be rebooted at least every month,

if only to update bad operating

system programs and the virus

protection.

full circle magazine #65

MY STORY

When I caved and started to use

Windows, I was looking around for

an alternative. At the university I

was using Unix, but that looked

unusable. There was also Linux,

with RedHat and other

distributions, but it looked harder

to work with than Windows. The

“read me first” documentation was

several hundred pages long. At a

large computer conference, I was

offered a free CD with something

new, named Ubuntu. I never heard

of it before, and the CD lay around

on my desk for years without being

used. But the name Ubuntu kept

coming back in the media, and,

when there was an “introduction

party” (everybody loves a good

party) for Ubuntu 10.04 Long Term

Support, I decided that it was time

to learn more about it. Well, it

wasn’t a real party, but everywhere

there were happy looking faces

and I was impressed with what I

saw. Especially Virtualbox got my

attention. When I left, I got a FREE

CD with Ubuntu on it. How can it

be FREE? Even the CD itself must

have cost a lot of money to

produce – especially that large

number of CD's. But I learned that

Ubuntu is more than an operating

system. It is part of a community in

which people do things for others,

gladly, without asking for payment

of any kind, although a thank you

note is appreciated.

I installed a dual-boot and was

surprised with the short time it

took (15 minutes instead of a

whole day, no motherboard drivers

needed, etc.). When I tried to

change the visual effects, it told

me it did not have the drivers to do

that (bummer). And then it asked:

“shall I get it for you?”. Yes, of

course! All done.

But I needed a lot of time to get

used to the Ubuntu way. And I also

needed to get things done, so I

went back to using Windows. I

tried several times, whenever I had

the time to play around (full job,

single parent, girlfriend an hour

drive away), but I gave up when I

bought a new CPU/motherboard

and Ubuntu refused to work on the

new CPU. But I did keep Googling

about Ubuntu, and found an ISO-

file with Ubuntu 10.04.2 on the

Ubuntu website. Later I realised

that I could expect this, as 10.04 is

a LTS version, and my new CPU did

not exist when 10.04 was created,

so it needed to be updated.

At this moment, I am using

11.10 because I wanted to program

in Pascal, and 10.04 did not have

Lazarus/FreePascal in its

repository. The rare Windows

programs for which there are no

suitable Linux replacement (yet)

are running in (each his own)

VirtualBox virtual computer.

Everything beautiful and

perfect? Unfortunately…. no. In

the early days of Ubuntu, there

were bugs in the programs and

even in the kernel. But as time

progressed, things got better.

Bugs were fixed, the kernel

became more stable, things

became more intuitive to

accomplish (GUI instead of

terminal…). But then there was

Unity. All kinds of things didn’t

work any more, and the internet

was filled with people telling the

world this was wrong. To start a

program you need to know and

type its name instead of selecting

it from a list with a mouse click, as

in Windows. If I would be a

Windows convert, I would walk

away and never look back. What

are the people behind Ubuntu

thinking? In a forum about creating

desktop icons to start a program,

one of the developers of Unity

replied with “It’s only 50% ready,

the next version will have

everything fixed”. My reply was

that “if it is not ready, do not

full circle magazine #65

MY STORY

distribute it. To beat Windows,

Ubuntu can not afford to be less

than perfect.” Then the

“liboverlay_scrollbar”. Lazarus was

not adapted to it yet, and I got all

kinds of crazy errors. Thanks to the

Lazarus forum it was fixed within a

day (try that on Windows!!!!), but it

shows that new things are

introduced not as an option, but

obligatory. That is “not done” in an

open software environment.

Did they forget that the USER

has to be in control? Change the

desktop to his needs and taste,

and get things done without

looking for hours for a way to do it

or having to type commands in a

terminal, or even change settings

in system files with great risk of

breaking his system. As a system

designer (I have created a lot of

human-machine interfaces, drivers

and applications), and end-user at

the same time, it is my opinion that

the look and feel of a desktop

should be adjustable and not

depend on the “engine” that is

used to activate/display it. It

should be intuitive, so I can use it

without having to read manuals.

For example: If I want to change

the background, I must be able to

simply right-click on an empty part

of the screen and get an interface

to specify my wishes (like on

Windows). In Ubuntu, I have to

browse through tons of programs

to find an application that is

capable of doing many different

things, among them the

adjustment of the screen. A very

annoying behaviour I came across

is the fact that the border of a

window is by default only one pixel

wide. Just try to click on it with

your mouse to grab it and move it

to resize the window! On average

that takes me three tries, with (if

you “miss-click” outside the

window) the chance of the

unwanted effect of the window

below it popping up (or even doing

something unwillingly if a button

was in that place). There are

themes with thicker border lines,

but there are only a few available

after installation, and finding a

suitable one on the Internet is very

hard, because of the choices,

choices, CHOICES you get. It may

be an advantage of open software

that you have so much to choose

from, but too many choices is

equally as bad as only a few

choices.

But everything is not lost yet.

Once the people behind Ubuntu

give us back the choice of the look

and feel of the desktop, we can

start again telling people who use

Windows how great Ubuntu is, and

offer them a stable and reliable

platform that looks and feels like

Windows, but is not. In the

meantime I will use Gnome classic.

full circle magazine #65

Written by Kevin B. O'Brien

he words we use to

describe what we do can

matter a lot in how we in

the FOSS community

think about what we do. Once

upon a time, there was Free

Software, as defined by Richard

Stallman in the famous Four

Freedoms:

• The freedom to run the program,

for any purpose (freedom 0).

• The freedom to study how the

program works, and change it so it

does your computing as you wish

(freedom 1). Access to the source

code is a precondition for this.

• The freedom to redistribute

copies so you can help your

neighbor (freedom 2).

• The freedom to distribute copies

of your modified versions to others

(freedom 3). By doing this you can

give the whole community a

chance to benefit from your

changes. Access to the source code

is a precondition for this.

Now, I happen to be a big

supporter of this. I love the idea of

Free Software. And I have noticed

that some people I greatly respect,

such as Jon ‘maddog’ Hall, are

always careful to refer to it as Free

Software. Nonetheless, there are

problems with this terminology. If

you have been around FOSS for

very long, you have noticed that

the word “free” admits of several

meanings, one of which has to with

the cost. And that was never the

point in FOSS. There is nothing in

the definition of FOSS or in the

GPL that says you are prohibited

from charging for your software.

And, because of the ambiguity in

“free,” we have to be careful to use

“Free As In Freedom” to denote

what Stallman meant by the Four

Freedoms, as distinct from “Free

As In Beer” to denote lack of a

monetary price.

A later term was developed

called Open Source, which put the

focus on making the source code

freely available. Now, it is clear

from the Four Freedoms above

that this is essential to Free

Software, so I am not sure just how

big a difference this makes. But if

you want to explain to the average

user why any of this matters, you

have to acknowledge that the

average user really doesn’t care if

the source code is available since

they can never imagine themselves

trying to modify the code. In point

of fact, I would expect that it is

highly likely that I will go to my

grave without ever attempting to

modify the code of any software I

use. I am not a programmer, and I

don’t have any desire to be one. I

like programmers, some of my best

friends are programmers, and the

world is undoubtedly a better

place because of programmers,

but I don’t think that is my role in

FOSS. So I don’t have a strong

interest in looking at the source

code. And to you in the back with

your hand up, I agree that it would

be silly to buy a car that had the

hood welded shut, but I don’t

repair my own cars either. Instead I

support the economy by helping a

mechanic to earn a semi-honest

living.

The term I have adopted for

this purpose is to call what we do

“Community-Supported Software,”

because I think that puts the

emphasis where it more properly

belongs, at least for some uses. If

we value this software, I think we

all have a responsibility to support

it in whatever way we can. Some

do that as programmers, but the

rest of us have a role to play. And I

want to explore some of those

options (and maybe motivate some

people to get involved). Because I

think it is true that freedom is

never free. It requires all of us to

take part in defending and

supporting it.

Bug Hunting

I’ve already mentioned that

Free Software should more

properly be considered

“Community-Supported” software,

and I said I would come back to

discuss just what that means.

There are lots of ways for

someone to support Free

Software, but one of the most

important is by submitting bugs to

the developers. Remember that

these fine people are creating

wonderful software with minimal

budgets, and that means they

cannot possibly test their software

under all possible conditions. Many

of us (myself included) build our

full circle magazine #65

MY OPINION

own computers out of parts we

mix and match, everyone installs

their own custom blend of

software, etc. Under the

circumstances, you have to expect

that we will stumble over

problems that no one knew about.

And the only way they can get

fixed and the software improved

for everyone is by filing bugs. This

is how the developers get

informed about the problems, and

is step one to fixing them.

The first place to look for filing

bugs is with your distro. The major

distros tend to have online bug-

tracking mechanisms of some kind,

and they will have specific

directions on how to file a bug.

They may decide that it should go

upstream (i.e. the bug is in a

package that they included but

don’t directly support), but it is

really never wrong to start with

the distro. If you want to read

more about this, a good place to

start is at LinuxCareeer.com. Note

how they start off their discussion:

This site gives more specific

instructions for Ubuntu, Mint,

Fedora, Debian, and openSUSE. But

if you use some other distro, just

go to the site of the distro and you

will be certain to find how they do

it. Or Google for the name of the

distro and the phrase “filing bugs”

and you will probably get there

right away.

Now, aside from the specific

mechanics of submitting a bug for

your distro, there are some general

things that are important to any

good bug report, and you should

learn to look for these:

• Did anything just change? Did you

just add a new video card, for

instance? If you change to a

different video card, does that

affect the problem? Did you just

install new software? Did you just

update something? Can you roll

back the change and try again?

Knowing the answers to these

questions can be very important in

determining where the problem

lies.

• What were you doing when the

problem occurred? Is it

reproducible, i.e. if you do the

same things again, do you get the

exact same problem? Again, a very

important piece of information for

tracking down the bug.

• Do you have any log data to add

to the report? Get to know where

this data lives, and how to access

it. For instance, dmesg is a great

source of information. Just

including this file in your bug

report can be useful, but even

better is finding out how to pull

out the relevant details first.

• Check to see if this bug has

already been submitted. If so, you

may be able to add on to the

report as an additional case of the

same bug. Even better, if you

learned how to get good

information, you can improve the

original bug report to the point

where the developers can actually

work on it. When you look at how

bugs are submitted, a large

number of them cannot be worked

on because there is no useful

information. Learn to make yours

useful. Also, you may discover that

the bug has already been fixed,

and all you need to do is update

your software. That is pretty good,

right?

Here is an example of one

problem I had. The software

package in question was Miro,

which downloads and plays videos

from the Web, which for me is

mostly video podcasts. And I use it

every day, so this problem

mattered to me. I had just

upgraded my distro to the newest

version, and suddenly Miro would

not play any of my videos. I

checked and I could play them in

other software, but I wanted Miro

to work for me again. I also

checked on another computer with

the same distro version, and had

the exact same problem. So I filed

a bug in two places, one with the

distro, the other with Miro itself. I

got a reply from a developer on

the Miro project within hours, and

he said that he had tried that exact

distro version and had no

problems. So there was probably

full circle magazine #65

MY OPINION

some combination of software

that I tended to use that did

something unexpected. He asked

me to grab a log file from Miro,

and send it to him. I did so, and

again he wrote back promptly

pointing out a couple of lines in

the log file, and saying that it

looked like I was missing a critical

package. I checked, and it looked

like this package was on my

system, but I removed it,

reinstalled it, and then Miro

worked properly again. I think this

counts as a very good outcome.

When you create good bug

reports, you help yourself and you

help others. And that is a big part

of what it means to have

Community-Supported Software.

Documentation

In my day job,I am a Project

Manager, and one of the things I

constantly try to get is good

documentation. I hope I have even

produced a little of it myself. But

there is no topic on which I get

more resistance than on creating

good documentation. No one ever

has time to create it, but somehow

they find the resources to pay the

price when they don’t have it. If

getting good documentation is

hard in the corporate world, how

about in the Free Software world?

It is equally difficult. I can’t tell you

how many times I have tried to

access the Help system for one of

my KDE applications only to get an

error that says there is no Help

material available. You really feel

sometimes like you are being told

“We wrote it, now you figure out

what to do with it.” And part of the

reason is that we don’t always

think about it properly (in my

opinion).

I would start by distinguishing

between two kinds of

documentation: technical, and end-

user. Technical documentation, as

the name implies, is the sort of

thing that the developers could

provide if they chose to do so. This

could get to the very deepest level

of code documentation, but even if

it lives at a somewhat higher level,

it is not end-user documentation.

And the question of whether it

even exists remains. Developers

like developing, but they generally

don’t like documenting. And in

Free Software many of these

people are volunteers.

But the topic of end-user

documentation takes us in a

different direction, and one where

people with the right skills can be

very helpful. It can also be a little

frustrating. I recall one experience

I had where I offered to help

create end-user documentation for

an application. When I asked to see

what they had, the response was

“We don’t have anything, that is

what we want you to do.” Now I

like to think I am a good writer, and

I know I have been praised at work

for the documentation I have

written, but any writer needs

something to start with. At work, I

can make the technical people sit

down with me, answer my

questions, and so on. And you

really need something like that to

do good documentation. Good

technical documentation can get

you started, but to do good end-

user documentation you will need

to have some kind of access to the

developers. And if the folks on the

project you want to help don’t

understand this, you need to

explain it to them. They may want

someone to come along and just

magically make something happen

without anyone else on the project

being involved, but that is just not

feasible. Good documentation is a

group effort, really.

In writing for the end-user, you

need to be able to think a little

differently. End-users are, by-and-

large, not technical. There can be

exceptions to this rule, but this is a

good starting place for writing the

most useful documentation. And

the best way to do this is by

thinking of “stories”. The Agile

community tends to do a good job

of this in terms of software

development, but you need to

carry this into documentation as

well. You could write a book on this

topic, and I don’t have that kind of

space here so I will be somewhat

more brief. Stories in this context

means picturing a typical user of

some kind, and imagining how they

might try to use the software. Who

is this person? Be specific – give

this person a name, an age, a sex, a

background. The better you do this

– the better able you will be to get

into this person’s skin and see

things the way they do. Then look

at some questions they might

have.

full circle magazine #65

MY OPINION

And that is just a few of the

questions you might want to ask at

the beginning. By answering them,

you set a direction for what you

want to do. And if you can begin

here, and you can write out

answers that end-users can make

sense of, you can make an

invaluable contribution to Free

Software.

One last note is about

translating documentation. Free

software is international in scope,

and often the people who need it

most also need it in their own

language. If you can translate the

documentation, that is also a

much-needed contribution. Many

projects are looking for help with

this aspect of the documentation.

Just offer to help.

The “M” Word

And by that I mean Money.

As I mentioned previously,

when we talk about Free Software,

the emphasis ought to be on

freedom, not on price. The fact

that so much Free Software is also

free of purchase is great. It offers

people who cannot afford

expensive proprietary software a

chance to use comparable

software that can improve their

lives, their businesses, and their

societies. But, at the same time,

it does require some

money to produce the

software. While

there are cases

where the

financial

support comes

from

interested

companies

who may

assign their

staff as

developers

or provide

server space

(and

companies like

Red Hat and

IBM provide a lot

of support this

way), there are also a

lot of smaller projects

that need help. And some

activities that are important are

not supported by corporations at

all, but instead must rely on

individuals to provide this support.

I would never suggest you stop

feeding your kids to do this, but

the reality is that most users of

Free Software in the US and

Europe (for example) could easily

afford to make some contributions.

And I want to suggest some ways

you can do this.

To begin with,

most of the Free

Software

projects have a

Web page.

And if you

go to the

Web page

you will

probably

see

something

like a

PayPal

button to

make a

donation. My

rule of thumb

is that if I use

the software a lot

I ought to support it

financially. I have

always felt this way,

going back to the days of

“shareware”. Shareware used to be

“try before you buy” software

produced generally by

independent developers who let

you use the software free-of-

charge, but asked you to register

and pay for it if you liked it. While

undoubtedly some number of

people simply used the software

and ignored the obligation to pay

for it, it was clear to me (and many

others) that, if the developers

could not get paid for their

trouble, they would stop making

useful software. Now that I am

firmly in the Free Software camp, I

feel the same way: if we don’t

make sure our developers are

supported, they will go do other

things. They also need to eat, they

also have families, they need to

pay their bills.

I will give a few examples from

my own experience just to

illustrate how easy it is to do this if

you are sensitive to the issue. I

realize this may look like I am

trying to make myself look good,

but I don’t think I am any better

than anyone else, I just don’t have

anyone else’s examples handy right

now.

• The first example is a project

called Miro

(http://www.getmiro.com/), which

produces software to download

videos from the Internet and play

them. I subscribe to a lot of video

podcasts, as well as a few YouTube

full circle magazine #65

MY OPINION

channels, and this is how I do it.

And I use this software every day,

so it is a good candidate for

support. About a year ago they

were looking to sign up people in a

fund-raising drive called “Adopt a

line of code”, for which you would

pay $4 per month through PayPal.

It looked good to me, so I signed

up. After all, I get far more than $4

per month of benefit from this

software and have come to rely on

it every day.

• I also am a KDE user on all of my

computers. A few months back, I

saw a post from one of the

developers, Sebastian Trueg

(http://trueg.wordpress.com/),

that he needed to raise money to

support himself so he could

continue his work on KDE. Unlike

some of the developers, he had no

corporate paycheck supporting his

KDE work. Well, I use KDE every

day, I rely on it, and I clicked the

PayPal button for a donation (My

memory is that I gave him $10, not

a huge amount, but I hope that

among all of the KDE users he

raised enough money to keep

working.)

• My particular distro of choice is

Kubuntu, and, again, I use it every

day. I don’t think Canonical really

needs my donations to keep going,

but they base their work on

Debian, so when I saw a

fundraising drive to write and

publish the Debian System

Administrator’s Handbook, I

pledged a small amount (again, I

think it was $10 or so. For me, $10

is the amount I can casually donate

without worrying about paying my

own bills.)

Another form of support you

can give is by joining some of the

Non-Profit charitable organizations

that support Free Software. There

are a number of them, but I will

note a few. First is the Free

Software Foundation

(http://www.fsf.org/). This was set

up by Richard Stallman, and is the

one organization on my list that is

directly focused on defending our

software freedoms. This is the

group that promotes the GPL

license. Because my own freedom

is very important to me, I am proud

to say that I am a member. This is a

little more expensive than my

donations above, at $10 per

month, but I’m glad to do it.

Another group that you can

support through a membership is

The Linux Foundation

(http://www.linuxfoundation.org/).

This group pays the salary of Linus

Torvalds (and just announced that

they are supporting Greg Kroah-

Hartman), so if the Linux Kernel is

your thing this would be a good

thing to join. Individual

memberships are $99 per year.

Next I want to mention the Linux

Fund (http://www.linuxfund.org/).

They raise money through what

are called “Affinity Cards”, i.e.

credit cards with a logo of your

favorite group. You many have

seen these before to support

sports teams or universities, but

you can support Free Software.

And despite that name “Linux

Fund” they also support BSD,

which is Free Software by any

definition. All you need to do is

them and a small part of your

purchases goes to support the

project you choose.

The last one I would like to

mention is the Software Freedom

Conservancy

(http://sfconservancy.org/). This is

a non-profit group headed by

Bradley Kuhn that helps a lot of

projects. Essentially, they provide

the legal structure to enable

smaller projects to raise money

while the SFC handles the

administrative overhead. Bradley

was formerly at the Free Software

Foundation, and is still the most

active person in defending the

full circle magazine #65

IT HAS RETURNED!

The Full Circle

Podcast Returns!

It may be a new team of

podcasters, but the format

will be the same.

We'll be talking about Full

Circle Magazine, news,

reviews and interviews.

Your new team is:

• Les Pounder

• Tony Hughes

• Jon Chamberlain

• Oliver Clark

All are members of the

Blackpool (UK) LUG

http://blackpool.lug.org.uk

Debut episode is

available from the

FCM homepage.

MY OPINION

GPL, so this is a name you may well

have heard before. But at SFC he is

directly helping all of these

projects. Current member projects

include Amarok, Git, Samba, and

Wine. I’m guessing at least a few of

those projects produce software

you use, so you can help them out

with a donation.

Getting Involved

We have explored some of the

ways everyone can support Free

Software, such as by filing bugs,

writing documentation, and by

providing financial support. I want

to wrap it up by exploring what

may be the best way of all to get

started, and this is to get involved.

Join a group. Help out.

The first place you might wish

to look at is your local Linux User

Group (LUG). This is where you can

meet people in your community

who also are interested in Free

Software. You might think that

only Linux gets discussed there,

but I’d bet you would be surprised.

I know my local LUG has speakers

covering a wide range of topics in

Free Software. Last month we

learned about Sourceforge, for

instance, which supports a bunch

of different Free Software

projects. LUGs also provide

community outreach, such as by

doing install fests and by

cooperating with local schools and

organizations. I always suggest to

people that this is the first place to

go both to get help and to get

involved.

The next place you might want

to look into is with your Linux

distro of choice. Mine is Kubuntu,

which is a variant on Ubuntu that

uses the KDE desktop. So I have

joined my Ubuntu Local

Community (i.e. LoCo), which in my

case is Michigan in the US. This

group organizes Bug Jams, where

people get together to file and

work on bugs. And they organize

release parties twice a year when

new releases come out. I know that

Fedora has what they call the

Fedora Ambassadors program, and

many other distros have

opportunities to get involved. You

have only to ask.

Finally, I am going to mention

the various Linux and Free

Software conferences. I am

involved with one called Ohio

LinuxFest, where I am the Publicity

director. I just finished writing a

page for our web site

(https://ohiolinux.org/node/187)

where I listed 8 major positions we

are trying to fill, as well as a bunch

of day-of-event positions for

volunteers. If you have never been

involved with an event like this,

you might not realize just how

much work is involved in making

the magic happen each year. But it

is hard work, and every one of

them is looking for volunteers to

help put it on. And this is

something you can do even if you

don’t feel like you can file bugs or

write documentation, or you don’t

have the money to provide

financial support. You can always

provide help at these events.

Chances are there is one not too

far from you.

What really matters, though, is

that you make a contribution of

some kind. As we said when we

started this series of posts, Free

Software means Community-

supported Software. When it stops

getting community support, it dies.

If you value Free Software, then

you have a responsibility to

support it in one way or another.

My role here is to give you ideas on

how you can do that.

full circle magazine #65

Written by Ronnie Tucker

July 2012, 480 pp.

ISBN: 978-1-59327-425-2

http://nostarch.com/ubuntumadee

asy

he first two chapters of

“Ubuntu Made Easy”

begin by explaining what

Linux is, how to try

Ubuntu (yes, the book comes with

a Live CD), and, if you like it, how to

install Ubuntu. There are plenty of

screenshots showing every step of

the way.

With Ubuntu installed, the book

then explains how the desktop

works. This is particularly useful

especially with

Ubuntu now using

Unity rather than the

traditional Windows

style desktop with

‘start’ button

equivalent, taskbar

and such-like. Unity is

sure to fox new

users.

Chapter five goes

into great detail

about getting

connected to the

Internet – whether it

be via a modern

wireless router or

serial cable modem.

It even shows a

photo of a serial

port. How quaint! It

then explains

browsers, email

clients, microblogging and text

chatting.

From there it gets down to the

nitty-gritty of installing and

updating apps with the Ubuntu

Software Center. Keep your eye

out for Full Circle Magazine

popping up in a couple of

screenshots. Before moving on,

the book discusses the Update

Manager and adding repositories.

A nice touch was the authors

taking the time to explain the

adding of PPAs.

The next chapter is about

housekeeping with Nautilus,

burning CD/DVD discs and using

USB storage devices. Nothing too

in-depth, but still handy for getting

people to do backups.

We’re not even half way

CONTENTS:

Chapter 1: Becoming a Penguinista - Welcome to the World of Linux

Chapter 2: Wading and Diving - Running and (If You Like) Installing Ubuntu

Chapter 3: A New Place to Call Home - Getting to Know the Desktop

Chapter 4: More than Webbed Feet - Connecting to the Internet

Chapter 5: Slipping and Sliding - Exploring the Internet, Linux Style

Chapter 6: Rounding Out the Bird - Downloading, Installing, and Updating Programs the Easy Way

Chapter 7: A Tidy Nest - File and Disk Handling in Ubuntu

Chapter 8: Simple Kitten Ways - Getting to Know the Linux Terminal and Command Line

Chapter 9: Dressing Up the Bird - Customizing the Look and Feel of Your System

Chapter 10: Gutenbird - Setting Up and Using Your Printer and Scanner

Chapter 11: Polyglot Penguins - Linux Speaks Your Language

Chapter 12: Penguins at Work - Getting Down to Business in Linux

Chapter 13: Right-Brain Penguins - Linux Does Art

Chapter 14: Tux Rocks - Music a la Linux

Chapter 15: Pluggin' in the Penguin - Ubuntu and Your iPod, iPhone, and Other Digital Media Devices

Chapter 16: Couch Penguins - Video and DVD Playback in Ubuntu

Chapter 17: Feathered Flippers - Linux Gaming

Chapter 18: Sweet Home Antarctica - Linux Around the House

Chapter 19: Penguins at the Gates - Working with Ubuntu in a Windows World

Chapter 20: Defending the Nest - Security

Chapter 21: A Colony of Penguins - The Ubuntu Community

Chapter 22: Wounded Wings - Fixing Common Problems

Appendix A: Installing Ubuntu from a USB Flash Drive

Appendix B: Ubuntu Desktop CDs for AMD64 Users

Appendix C: Manually Partitioning Your Hard Disk

Appendix D: Resources

full circle magazine #65

REVIEW

through the book and we’re

getting terminal commands? Hang

on, installing pyWings via terminal?

But we’ve not even touched on

office/graphics/media stuff yet!

Only after doing complex terminal

stuff does it explain how to change

the desktop wallpaper which

seems a bit backwards.

After installing a printer and

changing the localization we get to

play with LibreOffice. It does a

good job of explaining the

different parts that make up the

office suite, and quickly explains

how to use each part.

At the halfway mark the book

begins explaining how to import

photos from digital cameras and

how to go about getting images

published online. Although,

Facebook for publishing photos?

Why not Flickr or something more

suited to photographs? Next, after

some GIMP talk, comes audio with

Rhythmbox and the ripping of

audio CDs. When the book

discusses the connection of

Android devices I did like how it

mentioned the current trend of

using MTP (rather than the old USB

storage option) explaining that as

of 12.04 MTP is much more

Android friendly. Several pages on

and we find that some Apple

devices fare just as badly with

HFS+ formatting which doesn’t get

along well with the Linux kernel.

After video playback we enter

into the realm of Linux games.

Several titles are mentioned from

various genres.

It’s inevitable that, at some

point, your Linux machine will

come into contact with a Windows

machine. Chapter 19 explains how

to mount Windows drives and

touches upon installing and using

Wine.

Heading into the final straight,

the book discusses the community

and how to get help. A big thanks

to No Starch Press for including

Full Circle Magazine in its list of

newsworthy sites. Definitely an

honor!

The final chapters show what to

do if your Ubuntu comes a cropper

and you need some assistance or,

worse still, safe mode.

I like the information that’s

contained in “Ubuntu Made Easy,”

but I’m not sure that it’s a good

idea to begin with trying to explain

what Linux/Ubuntu is. I think a

better starting point would have

been explaining how to try Ubuntu;

then, later on, explaining what

Linux is after the user has tried it.

The other chapters are great, but

maybe a little rearrangement

would have been in order. I’d

probably have told people how to

hook up Apple/Android devices

and use the office apps before

teaching them about installing

pyWings via the command line.

Definitely a great book for

beginners, but you’ll probably

have to explain to them not to

panic about the early mentions of

the terminal.

Many thanks to No Starch Press

for the review copy of “Ubuntu

Made Easy.” Please support No

Starch by buying their books via:

http://nostarch.com

full circle magazine #65

Written by Robin Catling

ith the release of

12.04, we're in a

fortunate position;

there's a growing

user base, a healthy user

community, and a lot of highly

intelligent people working on and

writing about Ubuntu. There are

even some very thick and quite

expensive printed books on the

subject. But in keeping with the

free and Open Source ethos, we

decided to take a look at some of

the free publications you can get

to help you and your Ubuntu

recruits along the way.

Muktware's Ubuntu

Manual - 12.04 LTS -

First Edition

http://www.muktware.com/articles

/3556/muktware-ubuntu-manual

This manual is intended for

users new to Ubuntu coming from

other operating systems, and also

users who are upgrading from

Ubuntu 10.04 LTS. It is a manual

produced by the community for

the community. Therefore, it is

available free of charge, and is

distributed under the CC-BY-SA 3.0

license.

It covers all elements of the

Ubuntu world – starting with

preparing your computer for

installation and using Ubuntu, to

advanced topics. It guides a new

user into the world of Ubuntu. An

entire chapter devoted to working

with Ubuntu effectively covers

some of the key features of

Ubuntu 12.04 like Virtual

Workspaces, Unity Desktop, Spread

View, and Switching between

applications.

From a site described as an

'Open Source Magazine', the team

at www.muktware.com have put

together an Ubuntu manual which

you can get directly from the

Ubuntu Software Centre!

Released under the Creative

Commons license, by a team for

whom English appears not to be

their first language, Muktware's

Ubuntu Manual is another attempt

to produce a manual for new users.

Like all the beginners’ manuals, it

does the right thing in principle,

opening with About Ubuntu, Why

Ubuntu, Who is behind Ubuntu,

Ubuntu Releases, Contributing to

Ubuntu.

In practice, the chances are, if

you've got it, you know a lot of

this, or you've been recommended

it and don't give a monkey’s, or you

just want to get on with it. Why can

nobody produce a fly-leaf PDF

page with a little info graphic, and

the hot links to skip to the section

you want – in this case Chapter 4

on page 11, Obtaining Ubuntu

followed by Chapter 5, Installing?

Part II, Using Ubuntu, gets into

its stride, with an overview of the

Unity desktop, the Launcher, and

HUD. The manual has some slightly

strange page layouts and breaks

and eccentric captioning. It's not a

particularly great explanation of

the HUD either. The Software

Centre is much better explained,

with warnings in the appropriate

places.

Next, there's a whole section on

Terminal Basics. This is well written

and presented content, but I'm of

two minds about terminal use.

Who is the audience for this

manual? Do you stick to describing

the graphical interface – after all

you can do 95% of common tasks

via Nautilus – including setting

ordinary permissions. Or do you

acknowledge there are quicker

ways for the technically

competent, and live in the real

world where the Linux terminal

still exists? Taking that second

option, Terminal Basics is done

well.

The next section is about

Performing Basic Tasks, which it

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REVIEW

covers very, very briefly in a very

random order – Micro-blogging,

playing media, the Office suite,

connecting and configuring

Internet, Printing, email, web

browsing, file sharing and games.

Advanced Topics then goes off

the rails a bit, installing alternative

desktops actually describes only

one – Gnome Shell. Does anyone

run Gnome Shell on Ubuntu? Any

new users?

Working Effectively Using

Ubuntu then talks about

Workspaces. Surely this belongs in

an earlier section? Switching

between applications, perhaps?

Next comes Customising Ubuntu,

which demonstrates the scope and

ambition of this manual – installing

lenses and scopes, third party

applications, and customising the

appearance. The Privacy Manager

also gets a mention. Part III,

Getting Help contains pointers to

various forums, wikis and

newletters.

As a free "manual produced by

the community for the

community," it is an excellent

effort; time and experience may

well suggest to the team some

better ways of doing things.

Ubuntu, An Absolute

Beginners Guide

by Courtney Loo, edited by Justin

Pot

http://courtneyloo.wordpress.com/

2012/01/23/ubuntu-an-absolute-

beginners-guide/

You can tell when a technology

is becoming popular when the

general tech press starts producing

material for it:

Honestly, these manuals are

starting to drive me crazy. How can

so many people get this so wrong?

Take a tip from a good marketing

department. Grab the viewer from

the get-go; show, tell, sell. Give

them pictures, colour. Give them

the gee-whizz..

They don't want a history

lesson. They don't need Sociology-

101. They need answers. What is it,

why do I need it, why is it so much

better than what I'm using now?

Courtney Loo's manual is only

32 pages long. Less than half that

is the material that should be in An

Absolute Beginners Guide.

It begins with the classic

mistake; What is it, the Ubuntu

Philosophy, How can it be free.

Jokingly referring to Linux, the

dreaded L-word, it tries to

demystify and explain Linux.

Meanwhile, I'm still waiting...

Chapter 3, Ubuntu Releases, is

an entirely unnecessary history

lesson in a horrible looking page

full of version numbers, code

names and releases. BORED! CUT!!!

Page 10: Installing. Finally!

Different ways of installing Ubuntu

is quite a useful run-down; via ISO,

USB stick, Dual-boot, co-existing

with Windows and Mac, or through

Wubi. Better!

Chapter 5 is Support and

Community. Hang on, I haven't

seen any of it yet! You haven't

shown me? Why do I care about

other free documentation and

Launchpad Answers?

Chapter 6, page 16: Getting

Started with Unity. Except it

doesn't. "Before Unity There Was

GNOME: A Little Bit Of History"

NOOO!!! I don't CARE!!! I don't give

a rat’s-tail about Gnome and its

Fisher-Price foot-print logo. This is

Chapter 6! GET ON WITH IT!!!

Page 17 finally shows me and

describes Ubuntu Unity. The next

few pages are dense (more

whitespace here, please), and

finally give me some decent

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REVIEW

information about Ubuntu, Unity,

the Dash, navigating and pinning.

Section 7 is entitled Ubuntu

Applications (How Do I...?); update

My Computer, Install Software and

Applications, download, surf,

manage photos, listen to music.

Now here's a thing. The first

item in Further Reading is an

article on MakeUseOf.com: Ubuntu

Restricted Extras: The First Thing

You Should Install on Ubuntu. Loo's

Listening to Music section doesn't

mention this. If you've got .MP3

music files, this is the first thing

you want to know. But it doesn't.

This is in the footnotes to a guide

which stops on page 30. I'm an

Absolute Beginner and you've

done little more than tease...

The Makeuseof guide appears

to have been written to a house

style under a restrictive brief (and

a proprietary licence!). While I like

elements of the writing style,

there is quite a number of things

wrong with this guide. RC

Ubuntu Manual Project:

Getting Started with

Ubuntu 12.04

http://ubuntu-manual.org/

Getting Started with Ubuntu

12.04 is a comprehensive

beginners guide for the Ubuntu

operating system. It is written

under an open source license, and

is free for you to download, read,

modify and share.

The manual will help you

become familiar with everyday

tasks such as surfing the web,

listening to music, and scanning

documents. With an emphasis on

easy to follow instructions, it is

suitable for all levels of

experience.

The project homepage actually

does a good job of describing and

reviewing the manual for me:

• Easy to understand – our manual

has step-by-step instructions and is

jargon-free (mostly)

• A picture is worth a thousand

words – lots of screen-shots to

show you how to do tasks (cool)

• Progressive learning curve – start

with the basics, and learn as you

work through each chapter

• Dozens of languages – translated

into more than 52 languages,

including localized screen-shots

• CC-BY-SA licensing – download,

modify, reproduce, and share as

much as you like

• Printer friendly – we have a

version optimized for printing to

save the trees

• Troubleshooting section – to help

you solve common Ubuntu

problems quickly

Now, the title is Getting

Started. Unfortunately, the team is

still committing the same error I

pointed out for the very first

edition. There's too much boring

stuff at the beginning.

Intellectually important stuff;

ethically important stuff. But

boring. Why does it need to be the

first section? Even if you call it

Prologue: Welcome, Ubuntu

Philosophy, A brief history of

Ubuntu, Is Ubuntu right for you

(this I like), Contact details, About

the team, Conventions used in this

book (useful).

With the section on Installation,

the quality begins to show

through. This is a proper step-by-

step guide with the right pictures.

The Desktop section has

sidebars and definitions and

illustrations, and works through

the things you need to know in the

right order; Unity, Launcher, Dash,

Managing Windows, Workspaces,

file manager, searching,

customising, accessibility.

Working with Ubuntu is a

comprehensive section almost 50

pages long, working through the

standard applications. Importantly,

it addresses the subject of codecs

for playing different media

formats.

There's a section on hardware –

an area in which a lot of computer

users get stuck in “Driver Hell,”

setting up and configuring various

devices. Displays, printers,

cameras, sound, scanning are all

covered in sufficient depth to get

through common configuration.

Software Management then

goes through installing and

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REVIEW

maintaining the software stack on

your machine, the Software

Centre, and the mechanics of

package installs. It mentions the

terminal, but doesn't go into any

detail. Security is outlined –

covering firewalls, permissions,

users and groups. There's a short

but sweet section on

Troubleshooting. Finding

Additional Help is a good list of

sources.

At the back, where it belongs,

the Open Source Licence is

included in full. There's also a

decent glossary.

Criticisms? I have very few as

the Ubuntu Manual is now a

mature publication. Yes, it could do

with a few more pictures, if only to

relieve some of the pages that are

quite bland and text-heavy. The

sidebar text is in far too small a

typeface so you can miss some

really useful snippets.

Simplify Your Life: the

"Unity Orientation

Guide" Revised

http://ubuntu-

za.org/sites/default/files/unity-5-

10-0-final-pdf.pdf

With the release of Ubuntu

Linux 12.04 LTS, the Ubuntu

Vancouver Local Community

(UVLC) has updated its guide to the

Unity desktop. The fully revised

"Unity Orientation Guide,"

formerly "Simplify Your Life with

Ubuntu Unity", is publicly available

and deserves to be easier to find.

To quote editor-in-chief and

Ubuntu Buzz Generator Randall

Ross:

• If you're new to Ubuntu, or Unity,

or both, it's definitely worth a read.

• If you've just installed Ubuntu

12.04 LTS, then this guide is for

you.

• If you doubt that Unity is

powerful and useful, we think this

guide just might sway your opinion.

No matter what your familiarity

is with Ubuntu, please share this

guide with your neighbours,

friends, and family members,

especially those on the other side

of the chasm!

It's another stand-out job by the

Vancouver team to produce a

straight-forward guide on a

technical subject (I know, I've done

them, including a Unity Guide for

Full Circle Magazine). Plaudits go

to managing editor Charlene

Tessier and the team of guest

editors/proof-readers from Ubuntu

Vancouver.

On first glance, the Unity

Orientation Guide is a lighter and

much faster read than the original.

It's geared towards those learning

and experiencing the Ubuntu Unity

interface for the first time. Its

focus is getting you oriented

quickly, and thus allowing you to

get on with your day-o-day

computer tasks.

This is more tightly focused

than the other guides here, since it

assumes you already have Ubuntu

with Unity installed, and so gets on

with the job. Using very simple

page layouts with lots of white

space, the instructions are

unfailingly clear and concise.

It does what it says on the cover

for the most part, although I was

initially confused to find the

explanation of the Unity HUD

(Head Up Display) at the back,

feeling it really ought to go near

the front just after the description

of the Unity Dash. After all, the

HUD is a much trumpeted feature

of 12.04. Then the thinking became

clear – the HUD is the labour-saver

when you are in applications, so

the guide talks about applications

first.

This is a well structured, well

designed team effort. I heartily

recommend it.

Conclusion

Overall I still think the

Vancouver team book, Unity

Orientation Guide strikes the best

balance of style and content, but

the Ubuntu Manual is the larger

reference work and a good one at

that.

full circle magazine #65

Every month we like to publish some of the emails we receive. If you would like to

submit a letter for publication, compliment or complaint, please email it to:

If Looks Could Kill

am a fan of MS office just

because of its looks, except I

do all my work on LibreOffice.

MS office gives me some

frustrating experience every time I

try to do something incredible

with it. Looks can be deceptive but

Looks kill. MS office is one of the

reason why most of my friends are

not switching to Ubuntu.

LibreOffice needs a grand

makeover of its UI to create a first

impression... love at first sight as

you may call it! But LibreOffice

developers do not have much

resources for such a grand

makeover in near future. As

LibreOffice is now the default

office suite for Ubuntu, I think

Canonical should foster the

LibreOffice project. LibreOffice is a

much better office suite than even

MS office. Leave alone the UI, a

few little tweaks like HUD

integration at deeper level and

cloud support with Ubuntu One

may take it way ahead of MS

office.

Uttamv

FVWM FTW!

read about Alan Ward's article

(Linux Lab - Making *buntu

12.04 Boot Faster) in FCM#63.

At the end of his article he

showed his desktop, which is

FVWM (F Virtual Window Manager)

in nature. Is it possible to give a

step-by-step instruction to install

FVWM from an Ubuntu 12.04

command-line-system?

Alan Replied:

oth FVWM (the simple

version) and FVWM-

crystal (a bit more

beautiful) are in the

Ubuntu repositories, more

precisely in the universe section.

So all you need to do, at the

command line, is:

sudo bash

aptget update

aptget install fvwmcrystal

(or "apt-get install fvwm" if you

only want FVWM )

and you should be good to go.

Alternatively, any graphical

software installer such as Synaptic

should also find them for you.

You then log out of your

session, and should find the fvwm

entries have been created in the

display manager list of desktop

sessions. For example, in lightdm:

As for configuration, there is

not too much information to be

found on the Web. The Gentoo

guide on FVWM is about the most

comprehensive I have seen so far:

http://en.gentoo-

wiki.com/wiki/FVWM/Configuratio

Alan Ward

Simple Solutions

started using Ubuntu back in

2006 with Edgy Eft. It always

has been and always will be a

great Operating System. I

support Ubuntu and what it stands

for. It is great to see Canonical

working hard to satisfy the

demands of users who use touch-

screen devices such as tablets,

smart-phones and All-in-one PCs.

I installed Ubuntu 12.04 a few

weeks back on my 15.3” laptop,

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full circle magazine #65

LETTERS

but I, like many other desktop

users, found Unity counter-

productive and limited in

configure-ability. I have since

installed Xubuntu due to the

classic and simple style of the user

interface that so many Linux users

are used to. I would love to still use

Ubuntu because of its good

reliability and support. I know

there is gnome-fallback, but I think

we need a better long-term

answer for the many desktop users

out there.

I want to share my own solution

to this dividing issue. My answer:

When the user installs Ubuntu for

the first time, the user is asked

what type of device they use.

Options could include: Tablet and

All-in-one PC = Unity Interface, and

Desktop = Gnome Interface. I

believe work should be done in

both interfaces to keep Ubuntu

users happy and content. Also,

once Ubuntu is installed, there

should be more options to allow

greater configure-ability, and, of

course, an option to bring back the

classic menu we have all grown

used to. It also makes me wonder

how many businesses are going to

cope, since from what I have read,

most of the computers in the

world are office PCs. Maybe I'm a

dreamer; I believe not. If Canonical

wants its desktop and power users

back, they need to have options for

all users, not just a 'one-fits-all'

approach. Simple. The next few

years are going to be very

interesting in regard to the future

development of the user interface

on computer devices.

Chris Love

No Kthanks

recently tried Kubuntu 12.04,

and read some reviews on it,

and found out they were right:

Kubuntu is rather bare-bones,

and takes a lot of tweaking to get

just right. After getting frustrated

with the bloated-feeling Kubuntu, I

tried PCLinuxOS KDE and found it

to run faster and smoother on the

same hardware – mostly due to

how it was set up. To top it off, the

mouse wheel actually worked in

PCLinuxOS when it didn't in

Kubuntu. I am more at home with

Gnome than KDE, so anything to

make using the really nice DE easy

to get into is always a plus. Maybe

I'll try Kubuntu again once it has

some bug fixes done, but, for now,

I'll stick with Gnome on my Ubuntu

setup, and play with KDE when the

mood strikes me with PCLinuxOS.

Don

full circle magazine #65

Compiled by Gord Campbell

If you have Ubuntu-related questions, email them to:

, and Gord will answer them in a future

issue.

Is there a way to have

more choice of

wallpapers than the ones

included in Ubuntu

12.04?

Yes! My favorite web

sites for getting

interesting wallpaper

are National Geographic

and Flightaware.

Let's say you have downloaded

lions.jpg into your Pictures folder.

Right-click on an empty area of

your desktop, and select "Change

Desktop Background." A window

will pop up with wallpaper

thumbnails on the right side. Click

on "+" below the thumbnails. A

file-manager window will appear,

click on "Pictures" on the left side

of the window. Find "lions.jpg" in

the list, select it and click on

"Open." Close the "Appearance"

window and you are done.

Ubuntu 12.04 is perfect

as long as I can access the

Synaptic Package

Manager more easily.

Open Synaptic, and,

after entering the

password, the icon will

appear in the launcher.

Right-click the icon and select lock

to launcher.

Am having some issues

with LibreOffice Present.

Working in a corporate

environment, the users

on the LAN can open my

presentation on their Windows 7

machines running Office (I assume

2010), but can't read the slides.

The backgrounds come through

but no text. Am saving a .pptx.

Save as .ppt

I need to figure out

where some files are.

See this guide:

https://help.ubuntu.com

/community/find. Here's

an example: I know I

have some files which begin with

"qa" in my Documents folder or

sub-folders. I open Terminal and

enter this command:

find Documents name 'qa*'

New HP p7-1108p with

Windows 7 already

installed. Setting up Dual

Boot w/Ubuntu 12.04.

Initially it worked fine. After

getting most everything tweaked, I

made the mistake of using the

Computer Janitor. After reboot, I

get: error: invalid arch

independent ELF magic. grub

rescue

(Thanks to Oldfred in

the Ubuntu Forums) See:

https://help.ubuntu.com

/community/Boot-Repair

I have installed

OpenClipArt from

Ubuntu Software Center,

but how to use it, and

where are they?

They are in subfolders

/usr/share/openclipart.

To use them, run

LibreOffice Writer and click on

Tools/Gallery. The various

contributors appear on the left,

select one to see the clipart that

person has contributed.

How can I make my

laptop run cooler?

One approach is to

install Jupiter. See:

http://www.ubuntubuzz.

com/2012/04/fix-laptop-

overheating-problem-in.html. The

page doesn't tell you that you

should log out and back in again

after installing Jupiter. Then you

can select "power saving mode".

On my laptop, the difference is 8

full circle magazine #65

Q & A

to 15 degrees.

However, "power saving mode"

also means "low performance

mode". When I play a 480P video

on youtube, the video is very

choppy.

I have Dell E220WF and

Acer AL2216W monitors

connected to the on-

board Radeon HD 6550D

video adapter on my computer.

The Acer is connected by a VGA

cable, the Dell by a DVI to VGA

connector. Nothing appears on the

Acer.

Replace the DVI to VGA

with a regular DVI cable.

I don't use DHCP on my

LAN, everything is set to

work with static IP. Can I

set an HP K8600dn

wireless printer to work with static

IP on Ubuntu?

The printer has a built-in

web server for

configuration. Allow

DHCP, then find what

address the printer has: open your

file manager, and click on "browse

network." The result should be a

list of the names of all the devices

on your network. To translate the

name into an IP address, use this

command:

nmblookup [name of device]

Enter the IP address into your

browser's address bar. One of the

printer's configuration options is

to set a static IP address. Then you

can disable DHCP again.

Can I run the Windows

picture-viewer, Irfanview,

in Ubuntu?

You will need to install

and configure Wine first.

After you download

Irfanview, the easiest

way to install it is through the

command line:

cd Downloads

wine iview433_setup.exe

This assumes that the file is in

your Downloads folder, and that

you downloaded version 4.33.

If you select "put shortcut on

desktop" during installation, you

will get a useful shortcut. You will

probably want to install plugins,

such as exif from Tucows. (With the

exif plugin, you can go from an

image with GPS data, to the

location in Google Maps, with a

couple of clicks via "GeoHack

Wiki".)

I use “Photo Sharing” in

MSN Messenger. Is there

any way to do this in

Ubuntu?

Not really. There are

several Linux programs

which support MSN

chatting, but the only

way to get Photo Sharing would be

to install Windows in a virtual

machine such as VirtualBox, then

use MSN Messenger from there.

My entire system

suddenly went read-only

on me, and then it

refused to boot up. I used

a live CD to mount my partitions

and backup some files and got

multiple cases of:

File shrank by xxxxxxx bytes;

padding with zeros

and

Cannot stat: Input/output

error

I have a full backup on an

external drive.

Sorry, it's time to buy a

new hard drive. You

should be proud of

yourself for having a

full circle magazine #65

After a long career in the computer

industry, including a stint as editor of

Computing Canada and Computer

Dealer News, Gord is now more-or-

less retired.

Q & A

backup, all too often we see: "but

how can I get back all my family

pictures from the last decade."

I just upgraded from

10.04 to 12.04.1 using

the online upgrade

method. An icon for

Firefox appears twice on the icon

list on the left side, but neither

one will actually start Firefox.

(Thanks to Roy in the

Yahoo Ubuntu Linux

Group.) Rename

Firefox's settings folder.

Run the Nautilus file manager, and

press Ctrl-H to show hidden files.

Find .mozilla and (right-click)

rename it to mozilla.old. Firefox

should run, and it will rebuild the

folder. You should be able to

import your bookmarks from

mozilla.old.

Two Tips and

Techniques

QQ?

h, darn. My Chinese

wife requires a terrible

program called QQ,

which runs only under

Windows. "Terrible," because it

completely takes over the

computer, a maximum resource

hog. "Requires," because all her

friends -- and her grandson -- use it.

Why? Because its

videoconferencing is superb, truly

state-of-the-art. We have a 12-hour

time difference to China, so every

morning, she gets up early to

video-chat with her friends in

China, and with her grandson.

Now comes Ubuntu 12.10,

Quantal Quetzal, sometimes

known as "QQ" in the Ubuntu

Forums. I see a post labelled, "QQ

problem [solved]" and I think,

"finally, I can eliminate Windows."

Nope. Just wishful thinking on my

part.

Bug Reporting

his should be simple: I

wanted to report a bug in

the Evolution email client.

First, I went to the Evolution

web site, which is part of

projects.gnome.org. Right there, it

said, "Help us improve Evolution by

reporting bugs to Bugzilla, our bug

tracking system."

As it turns out, I had previously

signed up with Bugzilla. However,

when I tried to login with that

email address and password, it said

it had never heard of me. I assume

it removes users who are inactive

for some period of time.

I signed up again, and that

worked perfectly. I could login to

Bugzilla. Well, no, I couldn't. I

entered my email address and

password, and up popped a

windows labelled "Mozzilla

Persona". When I entered the email

address I had previously

registered, it said, "choose a new

password". Then it objected

because my password was too

short. When I entered a longer

password, it appeared to sign me

in, but took me to a web page

which offered no useful options.

I tried again. The result this

time? "We are very sorry. There has

been an error!"

At this point, I am ready to give

up on Evolution. Thunderbird, here

we come! Users shouldn't have to

put up with this kind of crap.

full circle magazine #65

Written by Oscar Rivera

umble Indie Bundle V,

which was released on

Friday June 1, 2012,

may be the best Bundle

for Linux users to date. The new

Bundle brought with it many

welcome changes that were long

overdue. These changes are not

too “humble” by any means. For

beginners, the download process is

not only fast, but also extremely

easy. The quality of the games is

second to none when compared to

other Humble Bundle releases. The

gameplay for all releases is limited

only by your hardware and not by

the software. Last but not least,

the buying process hasn’t changed

a bit, it is as simple as simple can

be, and you can still name your

own price.

Purchase, Download

and Installation

You can no longer purchase

Humble Bundle V, but, for the first

time ever, if you are using Ubuntu,

downloading the Humble Bundle

was as easy as 1-2-3. After making

the purchase at whatever price you

decided, you received an email

with a link that took you to the

download page. At the download

page you chose how to download

your Humble Bundle. For the first

time ever, thanks to Canonical, if

you are using Ubuntu you could

click a button that said “Download

for Ubuntu”. By clicking the

Ubuntu button, you were basically

allowing the games to be

downloaded through the Ubuntu

Software Center. At the time of

this writing (June 2012), all of the

games were available to be

downloaded through the Software

Center, except for Psychonauts,

which was available to download

only through the Humble Bundle

download page. With the

exception of Psychonauts, I had all

of the games installed in my

system in less than 30 minutes! It

doesn’t get any faster than that.

Amnesia: The Dark

Descent

As far as the games themselves,

the selection this time around was

as good as it gets. My personal

favorite is Amnesia: The Dark

Descent – which has been

favorably received ever since its

original release for the PC as

evidenced by its rating of 9.25 (out

of 10) in Game Informer magazine.

The graphics are among the best

I’ve seen in recent years. However,

what makes this game a must-have

for any true Linux gamer lies in the

way it scares you like no other

game can. The first time you play

the game, when you are going

through the setup process, the

game recommends a couple of

things for better enjoyment. First,

it is recommended that you play in

a dark room, with the lights off and

the graphics set as dark as you can

have them while still maintaining

visibility. Second, it is

recommended that you play with

headphones turned up loud. Last,

but definitely not least, it is

recommended that you play to

have fun rather than to beat the

game, in other words you are

encouraged to explore as much as

you can. The last recommendation,

I must admit, is the hardest to

follow due in great part to the fear

you acquire very early in the game,

that prevents you from opening a

door or turning down a dark

corner. The last thing you want to

do is explore because the game

sucks you in so much that all you

really want is to get a little bit of

your long lost sanity back. Unlike

other horror games, you have zero

weapons at your disposal; instead,

you are constantly either running

full circle magazine #65

UBUNTU GAMES

away or looking for good places to

hide, while at the same time

staying away from the light

because the light brings about

insanity. No other game I have ever

played has stirred emotions in the

way that Amnesia has, and, after

playing this game, all other so-

called Horror games seem like a

family trip to Disneyland. The

game is rated M for Mature.

Bastion

If you happened to pay more

than the average amount for the

Humble Indie Bundle, you also

received Bastion, the 2011 game

developed by Supergiant Games.

Much like Amnesia, Bastion also

fared well among game critics and

fans alike. Like Amnesia, the

protagonist wakes up to get re-

acquainted with a mysterious yet

familiar world. However, the

similarities end there. Bastion is a

very colorful and fun game to play,

in which you don’t mind exploring

at all. It received an ESRB rating of

E10+, but it is definitely not for

kids only, but rather a game that

can literally be enjoyed by anyone,

no matter how old or young at

heart. Bastion is an action RPG in

which you play The Kid who must

explore a floating island and battle

all sorts of creatures in order to

restore peace to the land.

Throughout the game there are

many weapons and skills to

acquire; however, The Kid can carry

only two weapons and one special

skill at a time, which are

interchangeable and upgradable.

One aspect that is unique to

Bastion is the way the game is

narrated by one of the game’s non-

playable characters. The narration

is actually pretty fun to listen to,

and often funny. Not only do the

upcoming challenges affect the

narration, but so do your choices as

well as your playing style.

Originally the game was released

for Xbox Live Arcade, but we in the

Linux world are now fortunate to

be able to play this game in our

system and enjoy the fantasy-like

colorful graphics, superb

soundtrack, instinct driven

controls, and fascinating storyline

that Bastion has to offer.

Limbo

Much like Bastion, Limbo was

originally exclusively released for

the Xbox Live Arcade in 2010 but,

as of May 2012, the game has been

made available for the Linux

platform, just in time to be

released with the Humble Indie

Bundle V. Limbo is the first game

ever developed by Playdead. Limbo

is a 2D side-scrolling puzzle-

platformer that is entirely in black

and white from beginning to end.

Very much like Amnesia and

Bastion, in Limbo you wake up in a

rather foreign and definitely

violent world. Also, much the same

as Amnesia, in Limbo the main

character has no weapon at all.

Instead, you must solve many

puzzles to survive, sometimes

relying on your surroundings to

defeat your enemies. When you

fail to solve the puzzles, the boy

often suffers a very graphically

violent death. Although black and

white, the artwork is one of the

defining aspects of Limbo. Playing

it feels almost as if you were

watching an old, silent, black and

white movie in a rundown theater

with a projector that might need

replacement soon. The puzzles

range from easy to extremely hard

full circle magazine #65

UBUNTU GAMES

to solve. However, the game is

highly addictive and can be solved

in under 15 hours. Once you start,

it’s pretty hard to put it down. The

controls are pretty standard and

straightforward. The boy in the

game can move only from left to

right, jump, and grab things –

whether it’s a rope, a box, or a

canoe. The game uses a very

minimalistic approach in all

aspects, from sound and graphics

to controls and storyline. From the

beginning of the game until the

very end, the only thing you know

is that the boy is on a quest to find

his sister. Due to the often

gruesome death sequences, you

can’t help to wonder why the game

received an ESRB rating of T

instead of M. Perhaps if the game

were in color and you could see the

red blood, the game might have

gotten the Mature ESRB rating.

Other games and

Conclusion

At the time of this writing there

were eight games available that

were all part of the Humble Indie

Bundle V. Originally, the games

included with the Bundle were

Amnesia, Limbo, Superbrothers:

Sword and Sorcery, Psychonauts,

and Bastion if you paid above the

average amount of money paid at

the time of purchase. Then, on

June 7th, three other games were

added to those people who had

paid more than the average. These

games are Braid, Super Meat Boy,

and Lone Survivor. Perhaps the

other games will be reviewed in an

upcoming FCM issue.

Overall, the release of the

Humble Indie Bundle V has been a

great success. In its first 15 hours

after being released, the Bundle

had already sold more copies than

the previous best selling Bundle

which was Humble Indie Bundle IV.

At the time of this writing, the

Humble Indie Bundle V had sold

522,042 copies and counting. Ever

since the Humble Indie Bundle 1,

Linux buyers have paid, on average,

more than Windows and Mac

buyers. It could be this factor that

has led to such great and

significant progress to Linux

gaming as a whole. It is

undoubtedly hard to deny that the

Linux community is willing to

spend money to play video games,

and lots of video game companies

have taken notice of this fact. Not

only have independent companies

profited from Humble Indie Bundle

sales, but also there have been

talks lately of establishing a Linux

port for Steam, thus making

available a whole new world of

video games for those of us who

love Linux gaming.

For the most recent bundle see:

www.humblebundle.com

full circle magazine #65

Here is my desktop with a dynamic

screen generated from a shell script

with conky. I have an ASUS F50Q with

4 GB of memory, a Dual Core Intel

Pentium T3400 at 1.6 GHz, a hard

disk of 320 GB, and Ubuntu 12.04

Precise Pangolin.

I use the theme Radiance and Faenza

for icons. I use the dock cairo-dock

(without opengl).

Mamadou Sow

Your chance to show the world your desktop or PC. Email your screenshots and

photos to: and include a brief paragraph about your

desktop, your PC's specs and any other interesting tidbits about your setup.

This is my desktop - Ubuntu 32-bit with Lucid. PC Lenovo H310

- Intel Dual Core 3.0 GHz CPU, 1 GB RAM and 500 GB Hard

Drive.

The screen of the Screen Widget Less, New Wave theme of

Gnome 2.

The other OS is 32-bit Linux Mint Maya with Cinnamon - which

is the primary operating system of the machine.

Trong Dũng Võ

full circle magazine #65

MY DESKTOP

I started using Ubuntu 4 months

ago, and I think I am addicted to it

now. I love Ubuntu because it is

mine, I can change everything here

or even remake it for myself; I use

conky, Gimp, stellarium, chromium,

pidgin, and ... many other software

that are available for Ubuntu.

My system:

CPU: Intel core i5

RAM: 4 GB

Graphics: nvidia 630M (2 GB)

OS: Ubuntu (12.04)

SaMaN

I started using Ubuntu since

April 2012 as the Precise version

released. Below are the

specifications of my Laptop PC.

Model: Sony Vaio VGN-FW248J

OS: Ubuntu 12.04 LTS

Processor: Intel Core2Duo CPU

P8400 @ 2.26 GHz

HDD: 250 GB

RAM: 4 GB

I love Freedom, Free Software,

and, last but not least,

GNU/Linux distributions.

Navid Emami

full circle magazine #65

PUZZLE SOLUTIONS

CODE WORD

Codeword and 16x16 Suduko puzzles are

Club - www.thepuzzleclub.com

SUDOKU

full circle magazine #65

- Ronnie Tucker

ronnie@fullcirclemagazine.org

- Rob Kerfia

admin@fullcirclemagazine.org

- Les Pounder & Co.

podcast@fullcirclemagazine.org

Mike Kennedy, Lucas Westermann,

Gord Campbell, Robert Orsino,

Josh Hertel, Bert Jerred

Our thanks go to Canonical, the many

translation teams around the world

and Thorsten Wilms for the FCM logo.

FULL CIRCLE NEEDS YOU!

A magazine isn't a magazine without articles and Full Circle is no

exception. We need your opinions, desktops, stories, how-to's,

reviews, and anything else you want to tell your fellow *buntu users.

Send your articles to: articles@fullcirclemagazine.org

We are always looking for new articles to include in Full Circle. For help and advice

please see the Official Full Circle Style Guide: http://url.fullcirclemagazine.org/75d471

Send your or Linux experiences to: letters@fullcirclemagazine.org

Hardware/software should be sent to: reviews@fullcirclemagazine.org

for Q&A should go to: questions@fullcirclemagazine.org

screens should be emailed to: misc@fullcirclemagazine.org

... or you can visit our via: fullcirclemagazine.org

FCM#66

Deadline:

Sunday 07th Oct. 2012.

Release:

Friday 26th Oct. 2012.

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the epub file, you can drop an email to: mobile@fullcirclemagazine.org

Google Currents - Install the Google Currents app on your Android/Apple devices, search for 'full circle' (within the app) and

you'll be able to add issues 55+. Or, you can click the links on the FCM download pages.

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circle', choose an issue, and click the download button.

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spread the word about FCM and Ubuntu Linux.

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which is available on issues 51+.

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